The combination of Warrnambool’s Crimmin and Dennington’s Savage survived numerous tense matches throughout the three-day event at Warrnambool Bowls Club.

“In the warm-up games, out of the eight games, we won five of them on the last end, sometimes even on the last bowl,” Crimmin said.

After failing to win a match in their previous appearance at the lucrative tournament, Crimmin and Savage did not enter this year’s event expecting success.

“We played here three years ago and we never won a game,” Crimmin said.

“We haven’t played a game of pairs together this year.

“We didn’t expect to win it.

“We were just coming here to have a bowl.”

The duo met Warracknabeal combination Brian Gunn and Rusty Barry in the final yesterday afternoon, enduring another thriller to triumph 14-11.

Crimmin and Savage won four games on the opening day of action on Monday and recorded three wins and a draw on Tuesday to progress to the top eight.

They had to survive a knockout quarter-final and semi-final yesterday to earn a spot in the decider.

“They were all tight,” Crimmin said of yesterday’s matches.

The local winners are former Dennington teammates who were reunited for the pairs tournament after Crimmin crossed to Warrnambool before the 2011-12 Saturday pennant season.

“We used to play together until he deserted me,” Savage laughed.

Crimmin and Savage, who picked up a winner’s cheque worth more than $2000 yesterday, praised both the Warrnambool and Port Fairy bowls clubs for hosting matches.

While Gunn and Barry finished runner-up, third was Dennington’s Les Johnson and John Murnane, while fourth was Warrnambool’s Colin Jensen and Bill Tory.

This year’s $20,000 Autumn Classic has welcomed a record field of more than 220 players, with teams travelling from across Australia and as far as New Zealand to compete.

The Classic continues today with the start of the fours tournament, which finishes Saturday.