Whitby’s Jo Leeman beats home hot-shot Andy Deighton in Dukes Park Singles Merit final

The entry was good but, at 53, a little lower than in previous weeks. It was, however, a very strong field of entrants and this resulted in many long games, writes David Muir.

Initially these were played with 3 on the card but from the second round there was 5 on the card to ensure a finish in daylight.

In the preliminary round Keith David (Westgate) sprang something of an early surprise by beating Josh Emmerson (Whitby) 21-15 while his clubmate Larry Dixon had another good, 21-19, win over North Cliff’s Ed McCormack.

Rita Bland (Borough) fought out a 21-20 win over in-form Lisa Watson (Hunmanby) and this was also the score when Alan Landers (North Cliff) went through against Richard Jackson (Doncaster).

In the first-round home bowler Katie Gates fought out a close 21-18 win over Tom Muckley (Hunmanby) while Kenny Wale (Whitby) ground out a 21-17 win against Davis.

Jennie Allen (Hunmanby) also had a fine 21-17 win against Stuart Thompson (Pontefract) and Dave Moment had a very close 21-20 win against his North Cliff clubmate Robert Child.

The second round saw Jo Leeman (Whitby) beat Tony Chambers (Castleford) 21-15 to set up a game against her clubmate Steve Dover who just edges out Borough’s Jo Gates 21-20. Wale had a 21-14 win against Katie Gates only to face her father Kevin Gates (Dukes Park) who beat Allen 21-13.

In the bottom half of the draw Ian Richardson (North Cliff) had a 21-16 win over Harry Old (Hunmanby) while Tom Silcock (Barnsley) scored a strong 21-11 over home bowler Geoff Price.

The quarter-final line-up was completed when another home bowler, Andy Deighton (possibly the pre-competition favourite to win) had a 21-12 win against Alan Landers (North Cliff) and Moment won 21-17 against Geoff Watson (Whitby).

In the first quarter final Leeman saw of Dover 21-12 only to face another of her clubmates when Wale beat Kevin Gates 21-18.

The two bottom half games were comfortable wins for Silcock, 21-10 against Richardson, and Deighton, 21-11 against Moment.

The all-Whitby semi-final was a close affair with Leeman coming through 21-19 against Wale while Deighton had a more comfortable win against Silcock by 21-13.

The final was a real fight, Leeman took an early lead winning 4 of the first 5 ends to lead 11-6 only for Deighton to win the next 3 to pull back to 11-10.

Leeman then won 6 of the next 7 ends to lead 18-11.

Deighton was not prepared to lose on his home green and staged a comeback by taking the next 4 ends to trail by a single score at 18-17.

At this point Leeman got her game back in order and scored 3 singles to run out the winner by 21-17.

This was a well-deserved win for a bowler who has threatened to win a merit for some time but who, up to now, has just fallen short.

Her win also means that there will be at least one female qualifier for the Mick Jessop Champion of Champions Cup at Robin Hood’s Bay on August 31.

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