Alan Landers beats clubmate Ian Richardson in Dukes Park Singles Merit final

The day dawned with mist and some light rain and this, combined with it being chilly and probably other, seasonal, factors meant there were only 21 entrants.

The upside of this was that the main competition games could be played off scratch.

It was also possible, in part due to the low entry and in part to the fact that Dukes Park have two greens, to run a consolation Tea & Biscuits (T&B) competition for first game losers as a Drawn Pairs with 5 on the card.

In the preliminary round David Wright beat his Westgate clubmate Anthony Clarke 21-17 while Alan Kynaston (Hunmanby) cruised to a 21-9 win against Tim Purcell (Whitby). Even more convincing was home bowler Geoff Price’s 21-4 win against Bridlington Bay’s Derek Dale while David Knights (Sheffield) worked hard for a 21-6 win over Phil Todd (Hunmanby) and Chris Dobson (Dukes Park) won 21-8 against Sue Purcell (Whitby).

The first round started with a marathon 21-20 win for David Muir (Eastfield) who came back from 11-3 down to Adam Chilvers (North Cliff) to be rewarded by a game against Alan Landers (North Cliff) who beat Denise Dobson (Dukes Park) 21-14.

The luck of the draw pitted Borough’s husband and wife Barrie & Caroline Watson against each other with Barrie winning 21-5 while Mel Dale (Brid Bay) had a first merit win against Mally Kay (North Cliff) by 21-18.

Robert Child (North Cliff) won 21-13 against Keith Davis (Westgate) while Ian Richardson (North Cliff) had a comfortable 21-9 win over Wright. The quarter-final line-up was completed when Kynaston had a fine 21-14 win against Price and Dobson got out of jail to win 21-20 against Knights with a rather fortunate strike with his final wood.

The first quarter-final saw Landers win 21-8 against Muir while Dale did well against Barrie Watson before going down 21-15.

Richardson beat his clubmate Child 21-19 while Kynaston’s fine run came to an abrupt conclusion as Dobson ran out the winner by 21-5.

The first semi-final saw Landers going through 21-16 against Barrie Watson while Richardson was pushed a little more by Dobson before winning 21-16.

The final between the two clubmates and friends was very one-sided, Richardson winning the first end before Landers took 7 of the next 8 ends after to lead 10-3.

Richardson took the next end before Landers ran off 8 successive ends to lead 20-4. Richardson took the next 2 ends before Landers found the killer blow to win 21-7.

There were 19 entries for the T&B and in the preliminary round Denise Dobson & Sue Purcell won 21-15 against Keith Davis & Anthony Clarke.

In the first semi-final Adam Chilvers & Caroline Watson cruised through 21-10 against Phil Todd & Alan Green (Dukes Park).

In the other Derek Dale & Tim Purcell beat Denise Dobson & Sue Purcell 21-13.

This final was a very close affair with Dale & Purcell establishing a slight early advantage leading 11-9 after 8 ends.

Chilvers & Watson then pulled into the lead winning 4 unanswered ends to lead 14-11. Dale & Purcell then pulled back to 14-14 after 15 ends and then to 16-16 after 18 ends.

They then won 4 of the next 5 ends to stand on the verge of winning at 20-18 after 23 ends. At this point Chilvers & Watson regathered and scored 3 in the next 2 ends to win 21-20.