Tauranga's Paul Smith, Mike Phipps, Fiona Keegan and Lorraine Phipps won the 53rd National Final of the New Zealand Indoor Bowls Mixed Fours at the Expressions Events Centre, Upper Hutt.
This combination also won in 2014 and this win earned Mike and Lorraine Phipps their fifth titles and a Mixed Fours Gold Star. Only two other players have achieved this and they were Bruce and Sue Meyer from Manawatu in 1997. Their other wins were with John Zittersteijn and Liz Morrow in 2006 and 2007 and with Grant l'Ami and Michelle Watt in 2010.
They won five of their seven games to win with 10 pts. The event was played on a round robin principle and each of the teams had won both their district and one of eight zone finals.
Otago skipped by Daniel French with David Webb, Lyn Rance, Jenny Cowan were second with 9 pts while last year's champions, Ashley Diamond (s), Brandon Fuge, Lisa White, Sheree Holmes from Upper Hutt were fourth with 8 pts.
Meanwhile the husband and wife combination of Graham and Jan Low from Southland won the second Mixed Pairs title on a count back of ends from the Wairarapa couple of Donald and Janice Leighton. This event was held in conjunction with the Mixed Fours.
The Southland pair finished with 10 points, followed by Wairarapa 10, North Wellington (Kyle Waldron, Deborah Crook) 8 pts; Poverty Bay (David Lynn, Lois Lamont) 8 pts; Ashburton (Grant Wilson, Chris Talbot) 7 pts; North Taranaki (Grant l'Ami, Michelle Watt) 7 pts; Golden Bay-Motueka (Ron and Rae Inglis) 3 pts and Auckland (Colin Williams and Jenny Stockford) 3 pts.
