Visitor Andy Webb wins thrilling Borough singles merit final against Barrie Watson

The three preliminary round games were routine games with Barrie Watson, Jennie Allen and Geoff Watson progressing comfortably, writes David Muir.

In the first round Linda Armstrong (Castleford) had a good 21-17 win against Scott Wardman (North Cliff), a new member of Borough, Brian Dalby, also had a good start to his first local merit beating Steve Dover (Whitby) 21-16 but the closest game saw Paul Morgan (Whitby) lose 21-20 to Tony Chambers (Castleford).

In the second round Armstrong had a strong 21-9 win over Katie Gates (Dukes Park) while another regular visitor, Andy Webb (Alverston), beat Emmo Emmerson (Whitby) 21-14.

Gary Thornton beat Ashley Douglas 21-8 and Stuart Thompson (Pontefract) won 21-10 against Kenny Wale (Whitby).

Dalby won 21-9 against Tony Allen while Ian Richardson (N Cliff) went one better beating Chambers 21-8.

The quarter-final line-up was completed when Ronnie Noble won 21-14 against Kevin Gates (Dukes Pk) and Barrie Watson repeated his Friday win over Geoff Watson; this time by 21-16.

In the first quarter-final Webb crushed Armstrong 21-5 while Thornton won a tight game against Thompson 21-19.

Dalby’s fine run came to an end when Richardson won 21-11 to face the winner of the all-Borough clash where Barrie Watson went through 21-18 against Noble. Webb and Thornton fought out a close first semi with Webb prevailing 21-17. Watson had a slightly more comfortable progress, winning 21-12 against Richardson.

The final was a close affair with the scores being 12-12 after 12 ends. Webb then won five of the next six ends to lead 19-14 only for Watson to pull the deficit back to 19-18.

At this point Webb got his mojo back and won the next two ends to close out the game 21-19.

In the T&B final, the all-Whitby pairing of Ian Hadden & Peter Harvey defeated Alan Lee (North Cliff) & Pauline Allison (Borough) 21-11.

In the quarter-finals, Tim Purcell & Scott Wardman (North Cliff) recorded a 21-11 win over Sue Green & Steve Dover to face Hadden & Harvey who won 21-14 against David Muir & Sue Emmerson (Whitby).

In the other half of the draw Katie Gates & Paul Morgan eliminated Josh Emmerson (Whitby) & Caroline Watson (Borough) 21-12 with Lee & Allison competing the line-up by winning 21-17 against North Cliff’s Ed McCormack & Judith Andrews.

In the first semi-final Hadden & Harvey had a 21-12 win over Purcell & Wardman while Lee & Allison had a tougher game against Gates & Morgan, eventually going through 21-19.

The final was a one-sided game with Lee & Allison winning the first end but only scoring 4 singles in the next 7 ends against two 3s and a 2 to trail 14-11.

From here Hadden & Harvey took total control scoring three 2s and a single to win 21-11.

The prizes were presented by Borough’s new President Peter Hodgson.

Next weekend sees a Friday Over-60s singles competition at Westgate while on Sunday there is the first of two open doubles merits of the winter at Eastfield, as usual the main competitions start at 9am.

Entry for both is on the day so bowlers ideally need to be there by 8:55am to enable the draw to be made for a prompt start.

Anyone wanting to play in just the T&B should try to be there by about 11am to ensure they are entered in the draw.

As the Eastfield competition is a doubles the T&B will be a singles.

Also, although the doubles is mainly intended for “own partner” pairs anyone who turns up without a partner will be found one.