Barrie Watson wins East Coast of Yorkshire Crown Green Bowling Association Merit at Whitby

Entry for this competition, which has been running for 51 years, is limited to members of ECYCGBA clubs and this year attracted 50 entrants.

One of the highlights of the preliminary round saw Kevin Gates (Dukes Park) winning 21-16 against home bowler Geoff Watson.

Then Kenny Rodgers (Whitby) fought out a 21-19 win against Mally Kay (North Cliff) to face his clubmate Kenny Wale who beat yet another Whitby player, Tim Purcell, 21-17 after Purcell made a big comeback.

Jo Leeman (Whitby) won 21-17 against Borough’s Gary Thornton and in other close games Geoff Coleman (Whitby) won 21-18 against Jo Gates (Borough), Robert Child (North Cliff) also won 21-18, after some good fortune, against Emmo Emmerson (Whitby) and Alan Landers (North Cliff) had a 21-17 win against Whitby’s Andy Craven.

In the first round Callum Malone (North Cliff) had a somewhat surprisingly large win, 21-10, over Pam Watson (Hunmanby) while Hunmanby’s Geoff Oldham won 21-12 against Lynn Gates (Borough).

Home bowler Sue Emmerson won 21-9 against Rite Bland (Borough) while Joyce Harland won an all-Whitby game against Pete McCrory 21-17.

The next game saw a big upset with Adam Chilvers (North Cliff) beating top of the Championship qualification table Andy Deighton (Dukes Park) 21-11 to face another Dukes Park player, Chris Dobson, who won 21-8 against Whitby’s Steve Dover. Scott Wardman won an all-North Cliff game against Ed McCormack 21-15 to face Barrie Watson who had an impressive 21-10 win against Cliff’s Ian Richardson.

In the bottom half of the draw Kevin Gates won 21-13 against David Muir (Eastfield) to face Wale who beat Rodgers 21-13.

Peter Harvey won another all-Whitby game against Leeman 21-15 while Caroline Watson (Borough) came back at the end to win 21-20 against Cliff’s Allison Roe.

Coleman also won by that score against Paul Morgan (Whitby) while Billy Holdsworth (Hunmanby) eliminated Child 21-18. Finally Landers won 21-17 against Lisa Watson (Hunmanby) to face Sue Holdsworth (Hunmanby) who had a comfortable 21-12 win against Denise Dobson (Dukes Park).

The opening games of the second round saw Malone eat Oldham 21-14 and Harland win 21-16 against Emmerson.

Dobson reversed the score of his Dukes Park clubmate beating Chilvers 21-11 to face Barrie Watson who won 21-17 against Wardman. In the bottom half of the draw Gates beat Wale 21-19 and Harvey won 21-16 against Caroline Watson.

The quarter-final line-up was completed when Coleman beat Billy Holdsworth 21-15 and Sue Holdsworth had an impressive 21-13 win against Landers.

The first three quarter finals were close games with Malone winning 21-17 against Harland and Dobson pushing Barrie Watson before going down 21-20. Harvey won 21-17 against Kevin Gates but Sue Holdsworth had a decisive 21-9 win against Coleman.

Both semi-finals went to 21-20 with Barrie Watson edging out Malone and Sue Holdsworth doing the same to Harvey.

Sadly the final was a very one-sided affair with Watson racing out to a lead of 11-4 after 5 ends before Holdsworth took an end by 1.

Sadly that was it for her as Watson then scored an unanswered 10 in the next 6 ends to win 21-5.

The trophy and prizes were presented by, soon to stand down, Association President Ed McCormack.