After winning the regional Scottish Singles earlier in the day, King could be forgiven for falling apart a little on the third and final end of the best of three tie-break for the regional UK Open Singles, having gone all weekend and 11 games undefeated.
"I didn’t play quite as well as I would have liked in that last game", he said.
"I think the tiredness was beginning to set in a little bit. I wasn’t quite as consistent as Marty", he said of his opponent, world No 9-ranked Marty Kreft, in the final of the UK Open Singles.
Progressing through the Scottish Singles unbeaten, King said he got into the grove and followed one game up with another and played some good bowls.
"Good things happen when you play good bowls."
The Andersons Bay representative decided on a return to the PBA this year, following a two-year absence, as preparation for the Australian Open Championships beginning on the Gold Coast next week.
"I thought I’d better get some practice in", he quipped of now having a ticket to his first national final in six years.
After going through the weekend of 12 games and winning all but the last, King travels to Australia in top form and could well spring a few surprises.
Progressing through to the quarterfinal stage of the Scottish Open Singles he beat PBA international Murray Wilson 7-6, 7-7, before he had to delve deep again to overcome Adam Yaxley at the semifinal stage.
Yaxley took the game to a tie-break, which King won 2-0.
King then beat Ashburton’s Jason O’Connor in the final in another hard-fought encounter, 10-9, 9-4.
Tiredness perhaps played a part after O’Connor had seen off the challenges of Kreft and Graham Cook at the quarter and semifinal stages respectively.
Following competition for the Scottish Open Singles, the UK Open Singles offered a second chance to key players in securing passage to the national finals. And indeed it was King who shone through again with a series of straight set victories, in which he
again sent Wilson to the spectator seats at the quarterfinal stage with a 10-5, 7-6 victory.
He was then untroubled in reaching a second final, dispatching Andrew McCallum 9-0, 9-7.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the UK Open Singles draw yesterday, Kreft regained his mojo with a series of straight-set victories. But it was his ability to keep a cool head under pressure that shone through in the final with King.
After being well in control of the first set in the UK Open Single final against King, Kreft let an 8-2 lead slip away on the final two of nine ends in which King came back to win the set 9-8.
"I had two very poor ends. Paul played a couple of rippers which put me under pressure", he said.
But his confidence, while knocked, was not dented as he bounced back to a commanding 11-4 victory in the second set to force a tie-break.
That could have gone either way as each player went bowl for bowl, with Kreft getting the rub of the green on the third and final tie-break end to win 2-1.
"It changed a couple of times and I managed to chunk it off and come away with the win."
"But what a great weekend he (King) has had. He’s gone through only dropping his last games after making two finals.
"He’ll go good in Aussie, and I’ll get to share the plane with him on the way to the national finals."
