North star Callum Malone earns William Boyes Cup win at Hunmanby

This competition is restricted to members of clubs affiliated to the East Coast of Yorkshire Association, a maximum of six per club plus the holder, and is played for a cup presented over 100 years ago by Councillor, and Mayor of Scarborough, William Boyes, writes David Muir.

This year 40 players entered and all games were played off scratch.

There was a particular interest this year as holder Paul Morgan (Whitby), only the second holder of the cup to retain it, was bidding to become the first bowler to win it three years running.

In the first round there was only one result that was perhaps slightly unexpected when Jo Gates (Borough) won 21-15 against home player Geoff Oldham.

In the next round another top Hunmanby bowler, Phil Todd, went down 21-13 to Scott Wardman (North Cliff) while Ashley Brunton-Douglas (Eastfield) had a fine win against a third Hunmanby player, Jack Richardson, by 21-20. This was also the score when Adam Chilvers (North Cliff) beat Katie Gates (Dukes Park) while in another rather unexpected result saw Judith Andrews (North Cliff) go through 21-19 against Jo Leeman (Whitby).

In the third round Lisa Watson maintained Hunmanby’s interest by beating Tim Purcell (Whitby) 21-14 while Andy Braid (Robin Hood’s Bay) pulled off a surprise 21-19 win against Wardman.

Les Ramm (Borough) won 21-14 against Hunmanby’s David Birch to face his clubmate Simon Walker who beat Brunton-Douglas 21-14.

In the other half of the draw Callum Malone won comfortably against Deb Stallard (Hunmanby) while Chilvers beat his clubmate Dave Moment 21-19. Finally Ian Hadden (Whitby) won 21-20 against Jo Gates and Morgan cruised through 21-7 against Andrews.

The first quarter-final saw Watson win 21-7 against Braid while Walker beat Ramm 21-9. Malone also had a comfortable 21-12 win against Chilvers in the all-Cliff clash but Morgan was pushed far harder in the Whitby derby, winning 21-20 against Hadden.

The semi-finals both finished 21-14, with Watson eliminating Walker and Malone ending Morgan’s dream.

The final was an enthralling game but ultimately rather one-sided.

Malone won the first end by two only for Watson to win the next four ends to lead 5-2. Malone then won four ends to lead 9-5 and never relinquished the lead. Watson pulled it back to 9-7 down before Malone opened the score to 14-7 and then 16-8.

Watson did score a two but Malone was relentless and went to 18-10 and then 19-12. Watson did pull one more back but two singles saw Malone over the line to become one of, if not the, youngest winners of this venerable cup.

As Andrew Boyes, of Boyes & Co, was unfortunately unable to attend the prizes were presented by Association President Ed McCormack.

This Friday there will be an Over-60s Singles Merit at North Cliff and on Sunday Dukes Park host an Open Doubles Merit.

Entries for all merits during the summer must be made in advance with the appropriate Competition Secretary for the host club.