Whitby’s crown green bowls star Kenny Wale retains Winter Championship at Robin Hood’s Bay

Players are awarded qualification points for their performances in the singles merits during the winter and the top 16 on the list qualify for the Championship with some “extras” if there are more than 16 with the lowest qualifying score or more, writes David Muir.

The four highest ranking qualifiers are seeded so they can’t face each other until the semi-finals.

There is also a T&B for players who fail to qualify for the main competition.

Possibly because of the improved weather there were 28 entrants for the T&B which started at 9am and there were a perfect 16 qualifiers for the main competition. The T&B was played with 4 on the card but the main competition was played off scratch.

There were no real surprises in the T&B first round with possibly the pick of the games being Harry Old beating Steve Shannon (Doncaster) 21-16.

In the T&B second round the first three games finished with the scores being 21-19, Marion Dudman beat Robin Hood’s Bay clubmate Peter Fewster, Dave Knights (Sheffield) defeated Tommy Roberts (Whitby) after a strong fightback and Stuart Thompson Jr (Doncaster) beat Joyce Harland (Whitby).

Tim Purcell (Whitby) had a 21-11 success against Dave Moment, Denise Dobson won 21-10 against Allison Roe (North Cliff) while Ed McCormack beat Peter van de Gevel 21-16.

The quarter-final line-up was completed when Hunmanby’s Harry Old eliminated Jo Leeman (Whitby) 21-18 and Alan Boland (Whitby) had a 21-10 win against Simon Walker (Borough).

In the quarter-finals Knights had a another 21-19 victory, this time against Dudman, while Purcell went through 21-18 against Thompson.

Dobson beat McCormack 21-16 to face Old who won 21-18 against Boland.

Knights went on to beat Purcell 21-13 in the first semi-final while Dobson joined him in the final with a very close 21-20 win over Old.

The final was close with Knights leading 10-9 after seven ends before winning three ends to go 15-9 up and then three of the following five ends to stand near to a win at 19-14.

As is so often the case closing out the game proved difficult and Dobson proceeded to win five5 ends on the trot to secure a 21-19 win.

In the main competition first seed Kenny Wale (Whitby) started the defence of the title he won last year with a 21-15 win against Barrie Watson (Borough) to set up a quarter-final against Nigel Trotter (North Cliff) who won 21-10 against Linda Armstrong (Castleford).

Geoff Oldham won an all-Hunmanby game against Phil Todd 21-16 to face fourth seed Stuart Thompson Sr. (Pontefract) who beat Ian Richardson (N Cliff) 21-12.

Tony Chambers (Castleford) put third seed Geoff Watson (Whitby) out 21-16 to face another Whitby player Josh Emmerson who had a 21-17 win against Scott Wardman (N Cliff) while the quarter final line-up was completed when Alan Landers (N Cliff) defeated second seed Kevin Gates 21-19 in a marathon game.

Wale hit top form against Trotter to win 21-11 to face Thompson who won 21-15 against Oldham. Chambers claimed another Whitby scalp by beating Emmerson 21-16 while Landers crushed Dobson 21-6 to complete the semi-final line-up.

Wale dealt the same treatment to Thompson winning 21-6 while Landers was pushed hard by Chambers before winning 21-20.

The final between the two old rivals started with Landers establishing a 9-6 lead after nine ends before Wale got in to make it 14-14 after 20 ends.

After that Wale just had the edge and led 19-18 after 27 ends before scoring a two to finish off the game and reclaim the cup.

The cup and prizes were presented by the Association President Ed McCormack.

This weekend there just will be a Drawn Pairs at North Cliff.

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