BOWLS
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Fourteen years to the day since he celebrated winning the world outdoor singles bowls title, Jeremy Henry claimed his third successive World Cup crown at Warilla on Wednesday.
Playing on his home green, Henry beat fellow Australian representative Tony Wood 7-2, 8-7 in a nail-biting decider as Scotland's Caroline Brown lifted the women's title with a 7-7, 12-2 win over Alison Merrien.
Henry's hat-trick was made more impressive by the fact he dropped just one match throughout the entire tournament against Scotland's reigning world indoor champion Stewart Anderson.
"To win it once you are happy, but to win it three times on-the-trot on your home green with all the expectation and all the build-up to the tournament is fantastic," Henry said.
"You are making sure everything is organised because that is all part of my job, and then to actually play in it and win it, there is a lot of things going through your head."
Henry got off to a flying start in the final, securing an early 4-0 lead before Wood played his way back into the match.
The defending champion eventually sealed the set 7-2 but then was forced to scramble early in the second as Wood raced to an early advantage.
Down two heading into the final end, Henry came up clutch and found three shots with Wood missing his final attempt.
After the match, Henry said the final win was a great way to round out another successful tournament.
"It has been fantastic. We had another 24 countries here this year and they are back again next year," Henry said.
"To get a home win and an all-Australian grand final is just perfect from our point of view.
"The crowd was fantastic today too, there wasn't a spot in the house."
Earlier in the day, Wood had won through to the grand-final match with a convincing 10-4, 10-2 result over American Neil Furman.
In the women's final, Brown ended the stranglehold of Merrien and reigning champion Jo Edwards in recent years.
Merrien had knocked out Edwards before the semi-finals stages of this year's edition after Edwards defeated her in last year's decider.
But in 2014 it was Brown's turn to reign supreme in one of the strongest women's indoor fields of recent memory.
The win should put her in a good position for a solid performance at the Commonwealth Games in her home country.