Kenny Wale homes in on merit final triumph at Whitby BC
The last Sunday before Christmas saw Whitby hosting an open singles merit on a sunny but very chilly day, the cold being exacerbated by wind-chill.
The turnout was down a bit on earlier weeks at 22, writes David Muir.
In part this was because for once there were no visitors from West and South Yorkshire. All the main competition games were played with 3 on the card to ensure a finish in daylight.
The entry meant that there were six preliminary round games. In these home bowler Emmo Emmerson had a good 21-18 over Phil Todd (Hunmanby) while Denise Dobson (Dukes Park) cruised to a 21-8 win over Robert Child (North Cliff) and Kenny Wale won an all-Whitby clash against Geoff Watson by 21-10.
In a second all-Whitby meeting Tim Purcell also had a convincing, 21-9, win over Sue Emmerson with another Whitby, Geoff Coleman going through 21-15 against Barrie Watson (Borough).
In the final preliminary game Adam Chilvers (N Cliff) eliminated yet another Whitby player, Steve Dover 21-173.
In the first round Ian Richardson had a surprisingly big win, 21-7, against Josh Emmerson (Whitby) who has been in good form recently.
David Muir joined him with 21-13 win against Sue Green (Whitby) while Chris Dobson (Dukes Park) went through 21-11 against Joyce Harland (Whitby) for a quarter-final against Ian Hadden who beat Whitby clubmate Peter Harvey 21-8.
Gary Thornton (Borough) had a 21-13 win over Scott Wardman (N Cliff), Denise Dobson went through 21-12 against Emmo Emmerson, Wale scraped through 21-19 against Purcell to face Chilvers who beat Coleman 21-18.
The first two quarter-finals were comfortable wins for Richardson, 21-10 against Muir, and Chris Dobson 21-9 against Hadden.
The other quarters were closer with Denise Dobson eliminating Thornton 21-15 and Wale coming out on top by 21-19 against Chilvers.
Both semis were close, Chris Dobson winning 21-17 against Richardson and Wale beating Denise Dobson 21-18.
After a cagey first 5 ends which saw Dobson trail 6-5 Wale took control in the next 5 ends to lead 13-5. Dobson fought back winning three ends only for Wale to win the next three to lead 17-10 after 16 ends.
The game finished the way it started, the players trading ends but with both totalling 4 over the next 7 ends Wale eased over the winning line by 21-14.