Halifax's Gareth Coates wins Gambart Baines Challenge Cup

The cup is 107 years old, having been presented by Ernest Gambart Baines in 1919, it has only been contested on 87 occasions and has been won by a total of 65 bowlers, 13 of these having won it at least twice.

One bowler, Andy Spragg (Chesterfield), won it 7 times between 1991 and 2011 and father and son, Peter and James Wilcox (Crossgates, Leeds) have won twice and five times respectively between 2007 and 2026.

Traditionally all games were played on Alexandra greens, with the exception of 2020 when North Cliff had to be used because of Covid, but with a change of format to a one-day competition with 103 entrants this year and difficulties with the Indoor Bowling Centre, early stages were played on Borough, Eastfield, Robin Hood’s Bay and Whitby, with 8 qualifying from each green and the last 32 playing down to the final on the Alexandra greens.

The initial draw was made so that people who had travelled together from outside the area could not play each other in the qualifiers but a totally random redraw was made for the later stages.

There were 30 entrants at Borough including centenary winner Ira Jeffers (Crossgates).

The qualifiers were Dave Cowsill (Alverthorpe), Michael Sweeney (Morton House), Ira Jeffers, Marc Armitage (Littlemoor), Ruan Pendlebury (Thurgoland), Matty Griffiths (Treeton), Matty Mongon (Mirfield Old Bank) and Laura Love (Harehills Park).

At Eastfield there were 27 to play.

The qualifiers were local bowler Barrie Watson (Borough), Rob Wiltshire (Thurgoland), Duncan Ruddleston (Rothwell), another local, Kevin Gates (Dukes Park), Brian Sharock (Thurgoland), Daniel Petcher (Burton-on-Trent), a third local, Ian Hadden (Whitby) and Richard Jackson (Thongsbridge).

Robin Hood’s Bay had the joint lowest entry at 22 and the qualifiers were Anthony West (Bolehills, Sheffield), Joe Cranston (Crossgates), Phil Bryant (Spen Victoria), Grant Bartle (Crossgates), previous winner Gareth Coates (Halifax), Josh Emmerson (Whitby), Paul Morgan (North Cliff) and a junior, Louie Taylor (Crossgates).

Finally at Whitby there were also 22 entrants.

Previous winners James and Peter Wilcox qualified as did Kellie Boyd (Chesterfield), Bailey Rumney (Maltby), Lynn Wilcox (Crossgates), Steve Shannon (Chesterfield), Ryan Lysons (Chesterfield) and Rachel Wilcox (Crossgates).

The third and fourth round games were played using both Alexandra greens going onto a single green for the quarter-finals leaving the other free for the Junior Gambart.

The third round started with Petcher cruising through 21-10 against West to face Jackson who just made it through 21-20 against Emmerson.

Cowsill also won 21-10 against Shannon and Bryant went through 21-15 against Mongon. Griffiths beat Pendlebury 21-13 and Rumney won 21-15 against Bartle.

Hadden just made it through 21-20 against Morgan to face Jame Wilcox who had a big 21-5 win against Taylor.

The top half of the draw finished with Peter Wilcox winning 21-14 against Rachel Wilcox and Love eliminating Sharrock 21-16.

On the other green in the bottom half of the draw Wiltshire won 21-13 against Lysons and Gates put Watson out 21-16.

This was also the score when Ruddleston beat Boyd for a game against Coates who put Lynn Wilcox out 21-13.

There was another repeated score when Armitage won against Sweeney to face Cranston who just made it through 21-20 against Jeffers.

The fourth round started with some close games.

Petcher won 21-18 against Jackson to face Cowsill who just made it through 21-20 against Bryant.

Rumney also had a close game before winning 21-18 against Griffiths but James Wilcox was not really troubled by Hadden winning 21-10.

By one of those strange coincidences this was also the score when Love put previous winner Peter Wilcox out to face Gates who won 21-16 against Wiltshire.

In the final two games Coates had a big 21-9 win against Ruddleston and Armitage beat Cranston 21-13.

In the first quarter-final Petcher was not really troubled by Cowsill winning 21-10 but James Wilcox did even better beating Rumney 21-7.

In the bottom half of the draw Love continued her fine run and became possibly the first female bowler to reach the semi-finals of the competition when she beat Gates 21-18 to face Coates who ended Armitage’s hopes with a 21-11 win.

The two semi-finals were both quite comfortable wins for the two previous winners with Wilcox winning 21-13 against Petcher and Coates beating Love 21-12.

Wilcox made a good start in the final winning the first 2 ends before Coates went 11-7 up after 8 ends.

Wilcox won the next end but Coates then won 5 successive ends to lead 16-8.

Wilcox pulled 2 back in the next 2 ends only for Coates to score a 2 to lead 18-10.

Wilcox scored 2 on the 18th end but then Coates won 21-12 and became the 13th multiple winner of the Gambart Baines Challenge Cup.

The Junior Gambart Baines, The Roger Crowther Cup, is a competition that was established in 2021 by Wendy Crowther in memory of her late husband Roger for bowlers of or under the age of 18 years.

A basic handicapping system was applied with players receiving 1 point for each year they were under 18 but losing 1 point if they were county players.

Local bowler Alix Stallard (Hunmanby) put up a very good performance against Logan Preston (Pudsey) who had just won the Junior Waterloo before losing 21-15 in the preliminary round.

In the first quarter-final Louie Taylor, having also played in the main competition, beat his Crossgates clubmate Richie Jeffers 21-17 to face cup-holder Harry Brook (Cowcliffe Liberals) who won 21-15 against Will Bartle (Crossgates). Preston eliminated Eli Jeffers (Crossgates) 21-16 while Seb Mordue (Pudsey) cruised through 21-10 against Stan Rumney (Maltby).

The two semi-finals saw comfortable wins with Taylor beating Brook 21-14 and Mordue defeating Preston 21-11.

In the final Taylor earned a 21-14 win.

Prizes were presented by the Mayor of Scarborough, Councillor Thomas Murray assisted by competition organisers Paul Morgan and Robert Child.