Alan Landers homes in on merit victory against Adam Chilvers in all-North Cliff final
On Sunday North Cliff was the host club for the third Sunday singles merit of the winter season.
With 34 entrants four unfortunates had to play preliminary round games and by another quirk of fate they pitted two pairs of clubmates against each other.
In the first, all Whitby game, Joyce Harland sprang something of a surprise by beating Josh Emmerson 21-14 while in the Dukes Park clash Chris Dobson beat Kevin Gates 21-13.
In the first round Ronnie Noble (Borough) had a good 21-18 win over a home bowler, Dave Moment, and Mo Chambers (Castleford) beat the in-form Jo Leeman (Whitby) by the same margin.
Cliff’s Alan Landers had a close game against Geoff Watson (Whitby) eventually winning 21-19 while Harland had another very good win over Dobson by 21-17.
Noble could not produce another win in the second round going down 21-11 to Stuart Thompson (Pontefract) while Ian Richardson (N Cliff) beat Phil Todd (Hunmanby) 21-14. Gary Thornton (Borough) went through 21-17 against David Muir (Eastfield) in a tight 21-17 game while Adam Chilvers (N Cliff) beat Denise Dobson (Dukes Park) by the same score.
In the bottom half of the draw yet another home bowler, Nigel Trotter, beat Chambers 21-19 while his clubmate Scott Wardman lost 21-15 to Whitby’s Emmo Emmerson. Landers beat his clubmate Ashley Douglas 21-15 while another North Cliffer, Ed McCormack was Harland’s third victim by 21-17.
In the first quarter-final Thompson eased through 21-19 against Richardson while Chilvers beat Thornton 21-18 after Thornton had staged a recovery from being well behind. Trotter cruised through 21-11 against Emmerson while Landers put an end to Harland’s day with a 21-12 win.
In the first semi Chilvers won 21-16 against Thompson while Landers came through 21-20 against Trotter.
The final, an all-Cliff clash, was a very close affair with Landers taking an early lead of 9-4 after the first 3 ends only for Chilvers to pull back to be 11-8 down after nine ends.
He then had a run of six ends to lead by 16-11 only for Landers to level the scores at 16-16 after 18 ends.
Each player then scored three in the next five ends before a three for Landers gave him a win by 21-19.