Hunmanby’s Billy Holdsworth crowned as Summer Champion of Champions at Westgate

During the summer merit season players are awarded points on the basis of 1 point for winning their first game, a second point for a losing quarter final, 2 extra points for a losing semi-final, 4 for being runner-up and 6 for winning, writes David Muir.

The points are added up and the top 16 qualify for the finals. If there are more than 16 players on the qualifying score then all players on that score qualify necessitating a preliminary round.

The top 4 points totals are seeded so that they avoid a preliminary round if one is needed and cannot meet another seeded player until the semi-finals.

Because of the small field the main competition does not start until 11am and a Tea & Biscuits (T&B) competition is run, starting at 9am, for players who do not qualify for the Champion of Champions.

As Westgate have two greens the organisation of this competition is easier than at a club with only one green as the T&B can be run on one green and there is no clash of the two competitions on the day.

Also both competitions had just 16 entrants, an ideal number.

This meant that both competitions could be played off scratch and with only four jacks on the green in the earlier stages.

The first half of the T&B saw 4 games that were all relatively close. Katie Gates (Dukes Park) had a 21-18 win over Alan Boland (Whitby) while two home bowlers, Larry Dixon and Debra Stallard won 21-20 and 21-18 respectively against two North Cliff bowlers, Ed McCormack and Judith Andrews.

The final game in this half of the draw saw Lisa Watson (Hunmanby) go through 21-15 against a third North Cliffer, Justin Trotter.

In the bottom half Tim Purcell (Whitby) cruised through 21-9 against Westgate’s David Dexter and Scott Wardman (North Cliff) beat Emmo Emmerson (Whitby) 21-11.

Linda Armstrong sprang the big surprise of the round by beating Geoff Price (Dukes Park), possibly a favourite to win the comp0etition, 21-16 while Paul Stallard (Westgate) completed the quarter final line up with an emphatic 21-7 win against Sue Green (Whitby)

In the quarter finals Gates progressed with a 21-10 win against Dixon while Debra Stallard beat Watson 21-16.

Purcell won a close run game against Wardman 21-19 to face Paul Stallard, who beat Armstrong 21-15, in the semi-finals.

The first semi-final saw Gates beat Debra Stallard 21-14 while Purcell returned to his form of the first round beating Paul Stallard 21-8.

The final was a one-sided affair with Purcell racing into a 10-1 lead after 9 ends before gates won 2 ends to trail 10-4.

Purcell then won 8 of the next 9 ends to run out the winner by 21-5.

In the first round of the main competition the first seed, Paul Morgan (Whitby) had a 21-14 win over North Cliff’s Nigel Trotter and Tom Silcock (Barnsley) eliminated Kenny Wale (Whitby) 21-12.

Holdsworth (Hunmanby) had a comfortable 21-11 win against Adam Chilvers (North Cliff) while the top half of the draw was completed when fourth seed Stuart Thompson (Pontefract) beat Josh Emmerson (Whitby) 21-16.

In the bottom half Ian Richardson eliminated his North Cliff clubmate and third seed Robert Child 21-12 to face Denise Dobson (Dukes Park) who beat Sue Emmerson 21-13.

The quarter final line-up was completed when Gary Thornton (Borough) beat Alan Landers (North Cliff) 21-16 to set up a game against Chris Dobson (Dukes Park) whose opponent, clubmate Kevin Gates, had to withdraw with muscular problems with the score on 14-4.

In the quarter-finals Morgan recorded a 21-16 win over Silcock while Holdsworth ended the visiting challenge beating Thompson 21-17 in a game that swung one way and another.

Denise Dobson had an emphatic 21-10 over Richardson while her husband Chris was involved in an extraordinary game with Thornton.

After 14 ends Dobson led 14-6 only for Thornton to score 8 singles to level after 22 ends. Dobson won the next end but Thornton then scored 4 in 3 ends to lead 18-15 after 25 ends.

Each player then scored singles before Dobson scored 2 singles to trail 19-18 only for Thornton to reply with 2 singles to win 21-18.

In the first semi Holdsworth opened up a 6-0 lead after five ends before Morgan won nine of the next 22 ends to lead 13-9.

Holdsworth then came back to retake the lead 14-13 only for Morgan to score three in the next two ends. Holdsworth then scored the seven he needed to win in four ends.

The second Thornton-Dobson clash followed a similar pattern to the first with Denise Dobson opening up a big, 14-3, lead after 12 ends only for Thornton to win 11 of the next 12 ends to lead 18-15.

Dobson did win the next end but three in two ends for Thornton left him on the cusp of winning only for Dobson to reply with three of her own to trail 20-19 before Thornton got the single needed to win 21-19.

As in the T&B, the final was a one-sided affair with Holdsworth, who had looked impressive all day, easing away to lead 8-5 after 11 ends before winning eight of the next nine ends to win 21-6.

The prizes and the trophy were presented by Association President Ed McCormack.

Next weekend sees the end of the summer season when Borough host the Mick Jessop Cup final.

This competition, remembering a very fine bowler who died sadly young, is limited to winners of singles merits, Summer, Winter and Over-60s, in the previous 12 months and is in many ways the true East Coast Champion of Champions.

Many of the bowlers who played in the Champion of Champions will be facing each other again in this competition.

The main competition starts at 11am with a Tea & Biscuits for non-qualifiers starting at 9am.