Bowls: Alex Marshall claims world title record

THE day belonged to Alex Marshall at the Fred.Olsen Cruise Lines world indoor championships in Norfolk yesterday as he clocked up a third consecutive world indoor pairs title with best friend Paul Foster just six weeks after winning the outdoor version in Adelaide.

That win, though, brought his tally of world titles to 19 and put his name in the record books yet again, this time as the world’s most successful bowler – with one world title more than England’s Tony Allcock.

Yesterday’s all-Scottish pairs final at the Potters Leisure Resort against Auchinleck’s Stewart Anderson and Darren Burnett from Arbroath was a two-and-half-hour epic which kept the spectators engrossed before Marshall and Foster triumphed 9-7, 7-8, 2-1.

Marshall said: “I am absolutely drained. The concentration levels in that match were just so intense. I don’t think I put myself under any extra pressure knowing that, if I won, I would clock up 19 world titles, but this is a huge honour for me and it is also coupled with a third pairs in a row at Potters with Paul, so soon after our success in Adelaide, which makes it all very special”.

Foster paid tribute to his partner of ten years. “This is a momentous occasion for Alex and he thoroughly deserves this accolade. He thrives on pressure and showed that today,” he said.