Whitby bowler Jo Leeman wins Dukes Park Singles Over-60s Merit
On a cool, and generally cloudy, Friday Dukes Park hosted the first Over-60s Singles Merit of the summer, sponsored by Belt Estate Agency, Bridlington, with an entry of 26.
In the first round Robert Child (North Cliff) had a fine 21-17 win against a home bowler, Geoff Price, who was well fancied as a potential winner while Ian Richardson won a close all-North Cliff duel against Ed McCormack by 21-19.
Gary Thornton (Borough) had a more comfortable 21-11 win against Whitby’s Ian Hadden but his opponent, Nadine Smyth (Dukes Park) won a very tough game against Ashley Brunton-Douglas (Eastfield) 21-20.
Denise Dobson (Dukes Pk) and Tony Bland (Borough) both won 21-13 against Brian Dalby (Borough) and Ray Leeman (Whitby) respectively.
Jo Leeman (Whitby) beat another potential home winner, Chris Dobson, 21-16 while Larry Dixon (Westgate) won 21-18 against an in-form Tom Muckley (Hunmanby).
Ronnie Noble (Borough) beat Dave Moment (North Cliff) 21-13 while Harry Old (Hunmanby) had a 21-8 win against Rita Bland (Borough).
In round two Dave Clarke (Dukes Pk) had an 21-4 win against Pam Moment (N Cliff) and Barrie Watson (Borough) had a decent 21-13 win against David Muir (Eastfield).
Phil Rippingale (Dukes Pk) had a good 21-12 win against Tim Purcell (Whitby). Richardson won his second Cliff “derby” beating Child 21-19. Thornton won 21-11 against Smyth and Denise Dobson beat Tony Bland 21-10. Leeman cruised past Dixon 21-12 to face Old who crushed Noble 21-5.
In the first quarter final Clarke won 21-18 against Watson and that was the same score when Rippingale won against Richardson. In the other half Thornton won 21-15 against Dobson and Leeman just held out 21-20 against Old. In the first semi-final Clarke showed his clubmate Rippingale no mercy winning 21-6 While Leeman won 21-12 against Thornton.
In the final Leeman made a good start leading7-2 after 5 ends.
Clarke then started to come back pulling the deficit to 8-6 after 10 ends.
He replied to 2 singles by Leeman with 2 2s to level the scores at 10-10 after 14 ends.
Four shared ends saw the scores advance to 12-12 after 18 ends.
A 2 to Leeman and a single to Clarke were followed by 5 winning ends to Leeman who ran out 21-13 winner, her second singles merit win of the summer at Park.