THERE'S few things better than winning your club's most lucrative tournament and ending your city's wait for a local champion in the process.
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That's what Bathurst City Bowling Club's John Archer got to live out on the weekend when he was part of the winning team in the Bathurst Carillon Fours Championship.
Archer shared in the $4,000 first place prize pool alongside Luke Taylor (Orange City), Phil Gray (Queensland) and Bernie Diduszko (Orange City).
What made the win extra satisfying for Archer was that the quartet came together as a team only in the weeks leading up towards the tournament.
![Winners Luke Taylor (Orange City), John Archer (Bathurst City), Phil Gray (Queensland) and Bernie Diduszko (Orange City). Picture by Phill Murray.
Winners Luke Taylor (Orange City), John Archer (Bathurst City), Phil Gray (Queensland) and Bernie Diduszko (Orange City). Picture by Phill Murray.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/YpbCWLfGAstDHC22gJwdbm/932faf6a-b615-41be-9980-4bc5d91fc02e.JPG/r0_569_5568_3712_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Archer and Gray were no strangers to one another but their Orange City teammates came on board when plans were forced to change.
"I quite often play with Phil Gray, who skipped the side, and he's been up at Queensland for about 12 months now. He came back for this tournament because he loves it so much," Archer said.
"He had another couple of players who were going to come down from Queensland but they pulled out. We then got a couple of players from Orange. Bernie, our third, has won this tournament before but he didn't have a side for this time
"The event filled up quick and a few guys missed out. I gave him a ring and he was ready to go. Luke had put his name down a couple of weeks to go and said he was happy to fill in for any side who needed a player."
But the group gelled together perfectly.
They were one of just a handful of teams to go five from five throughout their games across the weekend.
That meant it came down to countback on point differential, and that's where Archer's team were rewarded for their dominance.
"It's a very hard tournament to win and we usually get a pretty good field there and you've got to get a bit lucky with your draws," Archer said.
"We played very well. I think it didn't matter who we went up against because the four of us played very, very well all weekend."
The group didn't have everything go completely their way over the course of the tournament.
Archer pointed to the group's third match - their last Saturday game - as a pivotal moment.
"That game was 11-all after 12 [of 15] ends," he said.
"We had a lead but they caught up to us. It was a bit touchy for a while but we ended up getting up by 13."
It was one of the biggest editions of the Carillon Fours event in some time, with 54 teams taking part in the annual end-of-year competition.