A large crowd gathered at the Isle of Wight Indoor Bowls Club to watch the grand final of this year’s Open Bowls Tournament, and witnessed one of the best games of bowls ever seen on the Island.

The tournament started in November, and is open to anyone who plays bowls.

It attracted players from as far away as Middlesex.

Last year’s champions, Darren Griffith and Martyn Butchers, started as favourites, but knew they had a formidable challenge confronting them in the form of the number three seeds, Anne Bernard and Ron LeLeux.

With all four players having previously won national events, a close game was expected, and that’s exactly what happened.

The standard of play was extremely high, with the lead changing hands many times, and finished level after 18 ends.

An extra end was played to determine the winners, but even that was a close affair, with the players asking the umpire to measure who was closest to the jack.

He determined that Anne and Ron were closest, so they were declared the winners.