Whitby Merit success for North Cliff ace Richardson
North Cliff’s Ian Richardson won the crown green Merit held at Whitby on Sunday.
In the preliminary round Kevin Gates (Dukes Park) destroyed Ian Harland (Whitby) 21-6, Alan Landers winning fairly comfortably 21-14 against North Cliff clubmate Callum Malone, Tommy Roberts (Whitby) just getting the better of Mally Kay (N Cliff) and Richardson eliminating Alan Boland (Whitby) 21-15.
In the first round Sue Purcell (Whitby) had a 21-10 win against Cliff’s Allison Roe to face Joyce Harland who won an all-Whitby game against Peter McCrory 21-18.
Kenny Wale (Whitby) won a tough game against Chris Dobson 21-18 to set up another all-Whitby game against Peter Harvey who cruised through 21-11 against Adam Chilvers (N Cliff) the two Eastfield entrants had tough draws with Ashley Brunton-Douglas losing 21-6 to Paul Morgan (Whitby) and David Muir going down 21-4 to Darryl Harrap (Castleford).
Tim Purcell won 21-14 against Robert Child while Alan Lee won an all-Cliff game against one of their junior members, Leela Chilvers 21-14 after Leela had taken an early lead.
Josh Thomas (Wakefield) won a very tight game against Geoff Watson by 21-20 to face Scott Wardman (N Cliff) who won 21-14 against Emmo Emmerson (Whitby).
Denise Dobson (Dukes Park) also won 21-14 against Peter Harland (Whitby) to set up a game against Josh Emmerson (Whitby) who had a 21-15 win against Katie Gates (Dukes Park). Steve Dover beat another Cliff junior, Connor Chilvers, 21-14 while David Knights (Sheffield) won 21-16 against Gary Thornton.
Landers beat Kevin Gates 21-18 while Richardson won 21-15 against Roberts.
In the second round Joyce Harland won 21-51 against Sue Purcell while Wale crushed Harvey 21-8. Harrap lost 21-10 to Morgan while Tim Purcell was pressed before winning 21-17 against Lee. Thomas cruised through 21-9 against Wardman to face Denise Dobson who went through 21-17 against Josh Emmerson.
The final quarter-final was set up when Dover beat Knights, 21-17 and Richardson reversed recent losses to Landers by winning 21-20.
Wale won the first quarter-final against Joyce Harland 21-19 while the second, again an all-Whitby affair, saw Purcell get through 21-20 against Morgan. Denise Dobson just managed to hold Thomas off, winning 21-19 while Richardson won comfortably, 21-9, against Dover.
Wale won the first semi-final against Purcell 21-13 but the other was a closer affair with Richardson winning 21-17 against Denise Dobson.
The final was an interesting game with Richardson taking a 10-5 lead after after 5 ends. Wale pulled 1 back only for Richardson to pull out to 14-6 after 9 ends and then to 19-9 after 15 ends. Wale pulled back to 19-15 down after 20 ends before Richardson got back in and scored 2 to win 21-15.
Gary Thornton & Rob Child won a cracking T&B final 21-19 against Katie Gates and Emmo Emmerson.
The prizes were presented by Whitby’s Emmo Emmerson.
On Friday Whitby will host an Over-60s singles merit of 2026 and on Sunday Dukes Park will host an Open Single both weather and greens permitting.
Entry is on the day with the draw being made at 9am.
There will also be Drawn Pairs T&Bs for first game losers and “late” arrivals provided the weather and light permit.
To ensure entry for these alone it is advisable to arrive no later than 11am.