Eastbourne insurance clerk Peter Reynolds, 65, and retired insurance representative Terry Howard, 61, became the national Over-60s pairs champions.

They did this by winning four games in two days at Wellingborough.

In only the second year of the event, they had a last 16 win 22-19 over Wilf Shield and Billy Bell of Stanley and followed that up with a 23-19 win over Derek Johnson and Barry Graves of Lincoln.

In both these games the Eastbourne pair got ahead over the vital closing ends.

The semi-final against Alan Mann and Dennis Ball of Teignbridge produced their easiest win, 23-12.

In the final against Roy Hennessey and Peter Macall of Bristol they were hanging on all the way through and only by scoring three shots on the 21st end to level the score at 18-18 did they stay alive. The third shot came via the umpire's measure using calipers.

On the extra end, Reynolds put his first bowl four inches in front of the jack and it stayed to be the match winner. They will collect their trophy at the EIBA luncheon at Bedworth on April 28.

Sussex have had two successes in the senior outdoors national pairs and now the Eastbourne pair have made it an outdoor-indoor double for the county.

Both Howard and Reynolds started bowling in the mid Seventies. Howard's first success was the Seaford Open singles in 1980 and Reynolds won the Eastbourne Open singles tournament in 1985 plus the tournament pairs in 1988.

Howard is a born again Christian who likes gardening and holidays. Reynolds enjoys swimming with his grandsons.

Showing the exuberance of youngsters over the closing stages, Preston won 35-29 over Herga (Harrow) at White Knights (Reading) in the quarter finals of the national Over 60s double fours championship.

Eric South, Alf Carver, John Laker and Dave Woosnam were 9-6 down to skip John Cook after ten ends and lost 16-14 but on the 18th end when the score was 15-10 against them, Woosnam played a match winning shot.

Five shots were against him when he fired the jack into the ditch and only lost a single shot.

Woosnam's team won the last three ends with four shots and when they finished colleagues Dennis Alderton, Charlie Harvey, Joe Galelli and Ken Thatcher had two more ends to play.

From 15-13 ahead at 18 ends against skip Jack Webb, Thatcher's rink finished 2,1,3 to win 21-13 and clinch a semi-final place. Thatcher was the man-of-the-match. The semi-finals will be on April 7 at Melton Mowbray with the final the following day.

Holders Croydon put Preston out of the London and Southern Counties shield at the quarter-final stage by 87-72.

Adrian Finnie, Chris Reynolds, Ian Watson and Dave Ovett did well to win 18-15 over Dave Clarke at Croydon but alongside them Dennis Alderton, Eric South, Alex Wright and Basil Holding dropped 10 shots over the first three ends and lost 31-12 to Andy Marr.

At Preston Peter Wood, Dave Hurdle, Brian Gillam and Dave Woosnam had a tight game but won 19-15 over John Gale with both skips drawing particularly well.

Lee Cooper, Tony Fenton, Dave Hesketh and Chris Turrell were doing well (16-6 up at nine ends) until they dropped fives on the 16th and 18th ends and lost 26-23 to Graham Vigor.