The event was held at Maitland City Bowls, Sports and Recreation club and attracted 42 teams from as far as Queensland and Victoria as well as a host of quality local pairs.

East Cessnock’s Brodie Turner and Brian Biddle from Kurri Kurri finished second while superstar Kurri Kurri Cannons pairing Nathan Dawson and Aaron Appleby ran third.

Maitland City bowls co-ordinator DJ Dilworth said the event had been a huge success.

“Going by the numbers it really has been a major success,” he said.

“It had started to die off a bit but we brought it back this year and attracted a large field.”

Dilworth, who joined the club at the start of the year and is a member of their No.1 grade pennants team, said the caliber of players that took part in the tournament spoke volumes for its quality.

“We had a lot of Aussie reps, ex-Aussie reps and NSW reps playing and had guys coming from Brisbane and Melbourne,” he said.

“Two years ago we had to cancel the event so I was really pleased with the whole weekend.”

“Sometimes you run a tournament and are still trying to fill places right up to it, for this one we were booked out four or five weeks ago which just shows how popular it was.”

The Hub of the Hunter had a total prize pool of $10,000, with the winning pair taking home $3000.