England’s Sam Tolchard has won the World Champion of Champions at Naenae BC in Wellington, New Zealand.

With the last bowl of the final, 33-year-old Sam delivered a world class backhand runner to ditch the jack and pick up two shots. Those two shots saw Sam take the tie-break set and win the prestigious event 2-1 on sets.

The Devon-based bowler from Kings BC defeated Malaysia’s Izzat Shameer Dzulkeple in a magnificent Men’s final. Both finalists emerged from a stellar field of national champions from around the world to get there.

Sam took the first set in convincing style, keeping Izzat at bay all through the set and clinched it 12-3.

However, the Malaysian battled his way back into the match. Izzat’s precise drawing helped him to win the second set 6-4 and take the final to a tie-break set.

Sam scored one on the first end of the three end tie-break followed by Malaysia’s Izzat scoring two on the second end.

In the final end of the tie-break, Izzat drew right in front of the jack to apply the pressure on Sam. The Englishman brilliantly fired the bowl off the rink – making the end wide open with a bowl left to play from each finalist. Izzat drew his final bowl in for shot to be in a Championship winning position.

With the last bowl of the final, under enormous pressure, Sam showed outstanding skill to fire the jack into the ditch and scored two shots to win the tie-break set 3-2.

Sam now adds his name to an exceptional roll of honour which features three previous English winners – Mark Walton in 2005, Julie Leake (then Sanders) in 2006 and Tom Bishop in 2013.

In the Women’s final, New Zealand’s Tayla Bruce defeated Carla Krizanic of Australia 2-0 on sets. Tayla becomes the seventh New Zealand winner of the event.

You can watch both finals as they happened via the Bowls New Zealand live stream on their YouTube channel here

2022 World Singles Championships

Naenae BC, Wellington, New Zealand

Day 7:

Men:

Final: Sam Tolchard (ENG) bt Izzat Shameer Dzulkeple (MAS) 12-3 4-6 3-2.

Women:

Final: Tayla Bruce (NZL) bt Carla Krizanic (AUS) 8-6 10-9.