Paul Morgan earns North Cliff Singles Merit victory
On Sunday there was a Singles Merit at North Cliff, sponsored by Ashley Brunton-Douglas, which eventually attracted 51 entrants.
The first two games in the preliminary round showed the vagaries of the random draw as the first saw Paul Morgan beating his Whitby clubmate Josh Emmerson 21-11 while in the second North Cliff husband and wife Dave and Pam Moment faced each other with Dave winning 21-7, writes David Muir.
The next game saw another all-North Cliff clash with Justin Trotter beating Ian Richardson 21-18. Perhaps the first sight pick of the draw in this round was Alan Landers (North Cliff) against Stuart Thompson (Pontefract) but Landers came out on top by a comfortable 21-10.
In the first round proper Morgan ran out an easy 21-7 winner against Moment on the, now, faster green while Trotter had a 21-16 win against Jo Gates (Borough).
Home bowler Tim Coyne disposed of Kenny Wale 21-14 to set up a game against his clubmate Danny Cooper who beat Championship leader Andy Deighton 21-15. David Birch (Hunmanby) had a 21-18 win against Cliff duo Ed McCormack and Greg Long scraped over the line against Emmo Emmerson (Whitby) 21-20.
Denise Dobson had a close,21-19, win against Jo Leeman (Whitby) while Landers had a comfortable 21-12 against Sue Emmerson (Whitby). Alan Lee (North Cliff) eased through 21-17 against Jim Norris (Barnsley) to face Lisa Watson (Hunmanby) who won 21-12 against Simon Walker (Borough).
Kevin Gates won by the same score against home bowler David Hill while Callum Malone (N Cliff) had an easy 21-6 win against David Muir (Eastfield). Geoff Watson (Whitby) won 21-20 against Tom Silcock (Barnsley) while Scott Wardman won another all-Cliff game against Patrick Germaine 21-11. Barrie Watson (Borough) won 21-10 against Robert Child (N Cliff) and Gary Thornton beat Ashley Brunton-Douglas 21-19.
In the third round Morgan beat Trotter 21-16, Cooper beat Coyne 21-11, Long won 21-20 against Birch and Dobson had a 21-16 win against Landers. Lee beat Lisa Watson 21-17 while Malone went through 21-18 against Gates, Wardman beat Geoff Watson 21-13, but one Watson did progress when Barrie beat his Borough clubmate Thornton 21-16.
In the first quarter-final Morgan went through 21-20 against Cooper to face Long who won comfortably, 21-9, against Dobson. In the bottom half of the draw Lee beat one North Cliff player in Malone by 21-12 to face another, Wardman, who also won 21-12 against the last Watson standing.
Morgan won the first semi-final against Long by 21-14 while Wardman took Lee nearly all the way before Lee prevailed 21-19.
The final was a game that swung one way and then another. Lee won the first 3 ends only for Morgan to win the next 3 to lead 10-9. Lee took another 3 singles before Morgan scored 5 in the next 4 ends to lead 15-12. The next 6 ends saw Lee take 5 singles to a 2 from Morgan to level the scores at 17-17 before Morgan scored 4 in the next 3 ends to win 21-17.
This Friday there will be the first O60s Singles of the season at Duke Park and on Sunday Bridlington Bay host an Open Doubles.
Entries for all merits during the summer must be made in advance with the appropriate Competition Secretary for the host club.