Dukes Park star Kevin Gates secures merit final win at Borough

Storm Eowyn had done its worst but the strong winds had abated and although still a bit frosty, the green was in a decent condition although also rather tricky, writes David Muir.

The main downside was that the weather was distinctly chilly. This was not, however, enough to deter 32 bowlers, including the usual visiting contingent, from entering giving a perfect number for the competition with no one having to play a preliminary round.

The main competition was played with four on the card throughout and, with heavy rain forecast the consolation, Tea & Biscuits (T&B), competition was effectively played as 11 up with 10 on the card.

In the first round there were several tough draws and one or two surprise results.

Barrie Watson (Borough) had a good 21-14 win over Phil Todd (Hunmanby) while North Cliff’s Adam Chilvers had a fine 21-10 over Denise Dobson (Dukes Park).

His Cliff clubmate Allison Roe produced probably the biggest surprise of the round by beating Stuart Thompson (Pontefract) 21-20 while, by some chance of the draw, four of the visitors wound up playing each other with Andy Webb (Alverthorpe) beating Mo Chambers (Castleford) 21-14 and Tony Chambers (Castleford) beating Amanda Hagen (Alverthorpe) 21-11.

Another visitor, Linda Armstrong (Castleford) had a good 21-18 win against Ronnie Noble (Borough) and Geoff Watson (Whitby) won by a rather surprising 21-12 margin against Alan Landers (North Cliff).

A final tight game, an all-Whitby affair saw Josh Emmerson beat his uncle Kenny Wale 21-20.

In the second round Barrie Watson booked a quarter-final place with a 21-14 win over Chris Dobson (Dukes Park) to face Chilvers who followed up his good first round win with an even more emphatic 21-7 beating of Ian Hadden (Whitby).

Roe was unable to follow up her fine win going down 21-14 to Caroline Watson (Borough) who would then face Kevin Gates (Dukes Park) who won a tight, 21-18, game against Paul Morgan (Whitby).

In the bottom half of the draw Ian Richardson (North Cliff) went through comfortably against Simon Walker (Borough) winning 21-12 while Webb ended Armstrong’s hopes with a 21-11 win.

The quarter-final line-up was completed when Emmerson had a 21-16 win against Tony Chambers and his clubmate Geoff Watson survived a late comeback from Tony Allen to win 21-18.

In the first quarter-final Chilvers continued his fine form beating Barrie Watson 21-6 while Gates beat Caroline Watson 21-15.

In the bottom half of the draw Webb went through 21-17 against Richardson while the third Watson, Geoff, had a comfortable 21-10 win against Emmerson.

In the semi-finals Gates finally ended Chilvers’ fine run, winning 21-18 while Webb won 21-14 against Geoff Watson. In the bottom half Ed McCormack (North Cliff) & Brian Dalby (Borough)

The final was a game of several phases with Webb winning the first five ends to lead 10-4 only for Gates to level things up after nine ends.

Webb then edged ahead with a single only for Gates to go ahead for the first time by 13-11.

Webb then pulled level again only for Gates to win the next five ends to stand “all but” at 21-13.

Webb did win the next end but Gates then finished things off to win 21-14.