DORCHESTER Bowls Club international Martin Puckett has achieved a lifetime ambition by winning the English National Indoor Singles title.

Puckett succeeded at his tenth attempt, beating Chawton Park's Adam White 21-9 in the final.

His accomplishment came after a season of qualifying matches at local and regional level, culminating in two days of intense competition in the national finals at Nottingham Indoor Bowls Club, where the best bowlers in the country battled for bowls' blue riband title.

In the first of four matches played out over the two days of the event Puckett took to the rinks with Pat Briscoe, and in a match which he held sway for most of the game it was finally down to a nailbiting last end 21-20 score that saw him over the line.

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A place in the quarter-finals meant another match with fellow England international Nick Brett of Huntingdon Bowls Club who he had never beaten in the singles.

Playing more consistent bowls, Puckett had Brett in trouble all the game and ran out a comfortable 21-11 winner.

It was apparent that Puckett was in the strongest half of the draw but the confidence-boosting win over Brett was followed by an equally challenging encounter with fellow England international and arch-rival Sammy Tolchard of Torquay United Bowls Club.

This was new ground for Puckett who had never passed the singles quarter-final stage in his previous nine attempts.

Once again, Puckett continued to draw with almost monotonous precision and, when needing to, was able to convert heads to his advantage. Tolchard accumulated just 10 shots as Puckett romped in to his first final with a resounding 21-10 victory.

Having put very strong contenders to the sword, Puckett started the final as a clear favourite against White.

However the first four ends were nip and tuck with White giving as good as he got, and was level at 2-2.

Puckett then showed his class and raised his game to take winning scores of one, two, three, two and a massive four to put clear daylight between his counterpart at 13-2 up.

The game seemed to be one-way traffic as White, who had played Puckett on numerous occasions and had failed to record a single win, struggled to equal the continuous wave of pressure bowls being delivered by his opponent.

To his credit, White dug in and managed to put together a few shots and was not too far adrift as Puckett reached 15-7.

White could not score more than a single and managed a brace on only one occasion’ as he finally succumbed 21-9.

Fellow bowlers at the Dorchester Bowls Club celebrated, after watching the match live via a stream from Nottingham.

Martin himself was over the moon with his record-breaking achievement.

He said: “I felt really good in all my games and felt that when in trouble I could raise my game to control my opponents.

“It’s really a marvellous feeling and a high point of my career.”

For Puckett, it was the first round of a punishing schedule as he has also qualified in the pairs, triples and fours and had one night’s rest before a 9.30am first-round match in the two-wood singles.