North star Alan Landers wins opening merit of 2026 at Eastfield

In spite of the weather 43 bowlers turned up which meant it proved impossible to stage a supplementary Tea & Biscuits (T&B) competition.

The preliminary round saw only two really interesting games, Alan Lee (North Cliff) pushed Geoff Watson (Whitby) before losing out 21-17 and Jo Leeman (Whitby) fought out a very close 21-18 win against David Muir (Eastfield), a game that could have gone either way.

In the first round John Jarvis (Eastfield) had a very good game before going down 21-18 to Ian Richardson (North Cliff) while Barrie Watson (Borough) crushed another home bowler, Ashley Brunton-Douglas 21-7.

Emmo Emmerson (Whitby) won 21-17 against Richard Gowan (North Cliff) to set a game against his Whitby clubmate Tommy Roberts who beat Bernard Chalk (Westgate) 21-19.

Robert Child (North Cliff) had a 21-11 win against Denise Dobson (Dukes Park) to face Stuart Thompson (Castleford) who won 21-12 against Gary Thornton (Borough). Keith Davis (Westgate) recorded a fine 21-13 win over Chris Dobson (Dukes Park) to set up another clash of clubmates against Dave Wright who won 21-9 against Joyce Harland (Whitby.

Alan Landers (North Cliff) won comfortably, 21-11, against Tony Chambers (Castleford) and Tim Purcell (Whitby) cruised through 21-9 against a clubmate, Peter Harland.

Katie Gates (Dukes Park) won 21-10 against Mary Kenworthy (Westgate) for the “reward” of a game against Paul Morgan (Whitby) who beat her father Kevin Gates 21-19. Adam Chilvers (North Cliff) had a big 21-5 win against his clubmate Allison Roe while Geoff Watson had also had a comfortable, 21-10, win against Phil Todd (Hunmanby).

The round of 16 was completed when Leeman beat David Knights (Sheffield) 21-18 and Kenny Wale won an all-Whitby game against Josh Emmerson 21-16.

The first game of round two saw Barrie Watson win 21-10 against Richardson and then Emmo Emmerson beat Roberts 21-16. Thompson beat Child 18 to set up a quarter final against David who won the all-Westgate game against Wright 21-13.

Landers won 21-17 against Purcell and Morgan won 21-9 against Katie Gates. Geoff Watson won 21-18 against Chilvers to face clubmate Leeman who won an all-Whitby game against Wale 21-13.

In the first quarter-final Barrie Watson won 21-13 against Emmo Emmerson to face Thompson who beat Davis by the same score.

Landers won 21-15 against Morgan to face Geoff Watson who overcame the in-form Leeman 21-16.

The two Watsons exited the competition in the semis, Barrie losing 21-13 to Thompson and Geoff, hampered by having strained his back in his previous game, 21-8 to Landers.

In the final Landers opened up a 17-7 lead after 9 ends before Thompson pulled a few back. Landers ran out a 21-12 winner after 15 ends.

On Friday Hunmanby will host the first Over-60s singles merit of 2026 and on Sunday Whitby will host an Open Singles, replacing Westgate as the venue, both weather and greens permitting.