STEVE Willsher claimed the Men’s Championship plus two other titles in his first season as Dorchester Bowls Club held their club competition finals across the three days.

In the Men’s Championship, Willsher came back strongly from 15-7 down to defeat Ged Costello 21-17 and then won the Men’s Veteran Singles and Men’s Sets by edging out Graham Cockett in both events.

In the other Men’s Singles events, the evergreen John Saunders won yet another singles title for his trophy cabinet with a fine victory against George Aslett in the Two-Wood Singles and Peter Elins defeated Robbie Legg 21-16 in a back-and-forth battle to be successful in the Men’s Handicap.

In the Ladies’ Championship, Sue Lofthouse retained her crown by scoring five shots in the final three ends to edge out Julie Corbin 21-18 after an excellent, hard-fought tussle.

Lofthouse was also victorious in the Ladies Two Woods with a fine win against Shirley Bowley, but the wily competitor Carol Baker got the better of Lofthouse in the Ladies Veteran Singles.

Elsewhere, Barbara Wilkins won a close final against June Gillespie in the Ladies’ Handicap and Sue Jennings overcame a resolute challenge by Val Wright to claim victory in the Ladies’ Sets.

In the Pairs Finals, Dave Bonnet claimed a brace of titles, winning the Men’s Drawn Pairs with John Burton against Ged Costello and Roy Fowler then teaming up with Sylvia Lawley in the Drawn Mixed Pairs to see off Sue Maggs and Robbie Legg.

Jill Bonnett just failed to match her husband’s success as Bonnett and Barbara Wilkin lost out in the Ladies’ Drawn Pairs to Sue Maggs and Carol Baker.

Sue and Rob Jennings claimed a fairly comfortable victory against Dennis and Val Wright in the Australian Pairs and George Aslett and Sylvia Lawley followed suit to defeat John Saunders and Fran Dyer to claim the Open Mixed Pairs Title.

The Men’s Triples final produced a thrilling last-end victory for Dennis Wright, Gerald Cornick and John Burton as they held off the late challenge of Les Selby, Peter Stevenson and Graham Cockett.

A strong second-half performance gave Barbara Wilkin, Pat Grove and Val Ghose a fine win against Jill Bonnett, Julie Corbin and June Gillespie in the Women’s Final.

Meanwhile, the indoor specialists were playing their summer finals. Hazel Ryan was successful in the Open Singles playing Clive Matthews and Ryan also won the Drawn Triples as, along with Jim Trim and Keith Kellaway, the trio defeated Tony Palmer, Lawrence Lawrie and Geoff Ellis.

Ellis gained consolation with a good win in the Novice Singles playing Ian Foulgar while Keith Kellaway and Steve Gamlin won a thrilling Drawn Pairs game 19-17 against Jenny Trotman and Pat Garrett.