Geoff Oldham beats Geoff Price to secure Westgate Over-60s Merit win

Fortunately the weather did improve somewhat later in the day, writes David Muir.

The first round, played off scratch, saw home bowler David Dexter score a 21-20 win over Sue Holdsworth (Hunmanby) to record the most notable win of the round.

In the second round Peter van de Gevel (Hunmanby) had a 21-13 win over Ed McCormack (North Cliff) while his clubmate ended Dexter’s hopes by winning 21-15. Gary Thornton (Borough) beat Denise Dobson (Dukes Park) 21-18 while Chris Dobson (Dukes Park) just had the edge over Tim Purcell (Whitby) winning 21-19.

Geoff Price (Dukes Park) saw of Whitby’s Geoff Watson 21-11 while North Cliff’s Nigel Trotter had a 21-16 win against Jennie Allen (Hunmanby), Harry Old (Hunmanby) had a 21-12 win over Duke Park’s Brian Whitehouse while Hunmanby’s Billy Holdsworth had a 21-18 win over Barrie Watson (Borough)

In the quarter finals Oldham beat his clubmate van de Gevel 21-10 while Dobson put paid to Thornton 21-5.

Price had a comfortable 21-14 win over Trotter while Old ended the run of his Hunmanby clubmate Holdsworth.

The two Geoffs then won their semi-finals, Oldham beating Dobson and Price beating Old.

In the final, played off scratch, Oldham opened up an early 7-0 lead which was never seriously challenged. Price still trailed 15-7 after 18 ends. He was able to reduce this to 16-13 after 23 ends but Oldham scored 5 to 1 in the next four ends to win 21-14.

On Sunday it was cold and windy at Eastfield for their singles merit sponsored by Eastfield Town Council.

The entry was an impressive 63 bowlers with a good contingent from South and West Yorkshire.

Even with 4 on the card all the way through the competition and using 6 jacks, possible because of a large green, it was a long day starting just before 9:30 am and finishing at about 6:30pm.

In the first round Jennie Allen (Hunmanby) scored a very 21-18 win over Borough’s Steve Lonnia while Barrie Watson had a close. 21-18, win over his Borough clubmate Simon Walker.

In one of the quirks of a random draw husband and wife Billy and Sue Holdsworth were drawn against each other with Sue going through 21-20.

Two other notable wins, both 21-18, were recorded by North Cliff bowlers Dave Moment and Ashley Douglas over Chris Dobson and Ian Richardson (also North Cliff) respectively.

Allen was unable to find her first round form against Danny Cooper (North Cliff) going down 21-9.

Nigel Trotter had an impressive 21-12 win over Cliff clubmate Alan Landers while Jim Norris (Barnsley) just had the edge, 21-20, over Sue Holdsworth.

In the third round Cooper played another Cliff bowler, Robert Child, and went through 21-14 while trotter beat Geoff Watson 21-15.

Three Whitby bowlers, Paul Morgan, Kenny Wale and Josh Emmerson beat Norris, Moment and Douglas respectively while Kevin gates (Dukes Park) completed the quarter-final line-up by beating Richard Jackson (Doncaster) 21-20.

In an all North Cliff affair Trotter beat Coope r21-16 while Tom Silcock (Barnsley) beat Barrie Watson 21-13. Wale beat Morgan 21-17 while Gates beat Emmerson 21-13.

Trotter continued his strong run by beating Silcock 21-13 while Gates went through 21-11 against Wale.

The final started out quite evenly with the score being 11-11 after 12 ends.

Trotter then had a run of 5 winning ends to lead 18-11 and although Gates scored two 2s to one in the next 3 ends the next 2 ends saw Trotter run out 21-15.

On Friday there is an Over-60 Singles Merit at North Cliff and on Sunday, again at North Cliff, there is their annual Over & Under 65s Doubles.

The start times are 9.30am and anyone wanting to play must register beforehand as the draws will be made in advance.