Bowls: World mixed pairs glory for Gourlay

DAVID Gourlay brought the World Matchplay Mixed Pairs title back to Scotland for the third time in five years yesterday, winning the title and giving partner Debbie Stavrou from Kent her first title in this event.

In the process the duo denied Scot Paul Foster his second title at the Potters Leisure Resort in two days.

Foster – partnered by 25-year-old Kerry Packwood – lost the first set and looked doomed when Gourlay and Stavrou held a match lie but with the last bowl of the second. Foster played, in his own words, a ‘wonderbowl’ to count a double, win the set 9-6 and send the match into a best of three tie break.

In the shoot-out, Gourlay ditched the jack with his last delivery and took the vital first end. Foster hit back in the second but narrowly failed to connect with the holding shot in the decider to leave Gourlay and Stavrou as the winners.