North Cliff's Alan Landers beats Phil Todd in Hospital Cup final thriller at Hunmanby

The Hospital Cup dates from 1902 and entry is limited to members of clubs in the East Coast of Yorkshire Association with a maximum of six entrants per club. All member clubs pay an entry fee which the winner then donates to a charity of their choice.

The first set of games in the first round saw defending champion Chris Dobson (Dukes Park) eliminated 21-12 by Harry Old but there were no real surprises in the other games.

In the second round Graham Knott (Bridlington Bay) sprang something of a surprise by beating Gary Thornton 21-19 to face another Borough bowler, Jo Gates. who had a close win, 21-17, against Ian Hadden (Whitby).

The top quarter of the draw contained 5 of Borough’s 6 entrants and two of these faced each other with Les Ramm beating Andy Adamson 21-16 to face another, Barrie Watson, who beat Lisa Watson (Hunmanby) 21-8. Pam Watson (Hunmanby) had a fine 21-16 win against Kenny Wale (Whitby) her “reward” being a game against Andy Deighton (Dukes Park) who won 21-15 against another Borough player, Lynn Gates.

The top half was completed when home bowler Phil Todd crushed Sheila West (Brid Bay) 21-1 while Alan Lee (North Cliff) won 21-13 against Dave Wicks (Eastfield).

In the other half of the draw Jack Richardson (Hunmanby) won 21-20 against Geoff Watson (Whitby) but another Whitby bowler, Geoff Coleman, went through 21-16 against Dave Tolcher (Robin Hood’s Bay) while a third Whitby bowler, Steve Dover won 21-20 against Scott Wardman (N Cliff), Old went forward with a 21-9 win against Larry Dixon (Westgate) to face Callum Malone (N Cliff) who also won 21-9 against Ashley Brunton-Douglas (Eastfield).

The round concluded with wins for Alan Landers (N Cliff) 21-17 against his clubmate Dave Moment and for Kevin Gates (Dukes Park) who won 21-20 against Tim Purcell (Whitby).

In the third round Jo Gates beat Knott 21-11 while Barrie Watson won the all-Borough game against Ramm 21-8.

Deighton was pushed by Pam Watson but prevailed 21-16 to face Todd who won 21-17 against Lee.

In the bottom half of the draw Jack Richardson beat Coleman 21-15 to face Denise Dobson (Dukes Park) who won 21-16 against Dover. Old beat Malone 21-19 and Landers won 21-20 against Kevin Gates having trailed for much of the game.

The first quarter final was another all-Borough affair and Jo Gates won 21-20 against Barrie Watson to set up a semi-final against Todd who won comfortably against Deighton 21-14.

Dobson also won 21-14 against Jack Richardson while Landers finished Old’s run with a 21-13 win.

The semi-finals saw comfortable wins for Todd, 21-13 against Jo Gates, and Landers, 21-7 against Dobson.

The final proved to be one worthy of this venerable trophy with Todd establishing an early lead, 10-4 after 11 ends.

Landers then pulled back to lead 21-11 after 18 ends and then 19-14 after 24 ends. As is so often the case the winning scores proved elusive and the next 2 ends were shared before Todd pulled back to 20-19 down after 29 ends.

With three woods bowled in the 30th end Todd was holding a single score which would have levelled matters at 20-20 only for Landers to play his second wood with controlled weight and great accuracy to remove Todd’s counting wood and win 21-19.

The trophies were presented by Association President Ed McCormack (North Cliff) and Landers chose to donate the monies to St Catherine’s Hospice.

This Friday there will be an Over-60s Drawn Pairs at Whitby with entry on the day and on Sunday there is Borough’s Mick Gates Doubles.

On Bank Holiday Monday the regions premier event, the Gambart Baines Challenge Cup, will be competed on four greens, the two public greens at Alexandra Gardens, Borough and Eastfield, for the first time in it’s 100 year plus history.