​Whitby ace Geoff Watson ends 2024 with Westgate Merit win

After a few foggy days the sun was shining but again conditions were chilly, writes David Muir.

All main competition games were played with three on the card.

The first two games in the first round saw clubmates playing each other with Whitby’s Jo Leeman beating Sue Green 21-13 and Dukes Park’s Chris Dobson scoring a 21-18 win against Geoff Price.

Another one club game saw North Cliff’s Nigel Trotter go through 21-19 against Callum Malone.

Another close game saw Denise Dobson (Dukes Park) have an impressive 21-20 win against Stuart Thompson (Pontefract).

The second round started with Tim Purcell (Whitby) scoring a 21-16 win over David Muir (Eastfield) in a rather scrappy game between the two bowlers with byes in the first round.

Chris Dobson then beat Leeman 21-17, Alan Lee (North Cliff) had an emphatic 21-9 win over Mo Chambers (Castleford) while her husband Tony went down 21-14 to Geoff Watson (Whitby).

In the other half of the draw Trotter swept Linda Armstrong (Castleford) away 21-12 while Paul Morgan (Whitby) had a 21-15 win against Phil Todd (Hunmanby).

Geoff Oldham (Hunmanby) beat the previous Sunday’s winner, Kenny Wale (Whitby) 21-17 to face Denise Dobson who recorded a 21-16 victory over Adam Chilvers (North Cliff).

In the first quarter-final Chris Dobson beat Purcell 21-13 while Watson had a 21-16 win against Lee. Trotter beat Morgan 21-15 in the lower half while Oldham finished Denise Dobson’s hopes with a 21-13 win.

The first semi-final saw Chris Dobson go down 21-12 to Watson while Oldham had a convincing 221-10 win against Trotter.

The final, between two Geoffs, was quite even for 15 ends with both players edging in front only to be pegged back.

At that point the score was 14-14 but then Watson had a run of 5 ends in which he scored 6 to lead 20-14.

The 21st point proved to be a bit elusive as Oldham then scored a two only for Watson to win end 23 to take the honours for the day.

​