PERFECT weather, if maybe a little too warm at times, and a green that attracted many complimentary comments, set the scene for the East Yorkshire Merit held on Sunday July 27. There were 55 entries for the competition, some from as far afield as West and South Yorkshire also Derbyshire.

Early results in the preliminaries were Derek Swift (North Cliff) just scraping home against Ron Marshall 21-20 before reaching the semi final by beating Sue O’Neill (Dukes Park) 21-7, Ian Mott (Dukes Park) 21-9 and Ralph Gill (West Yorks) 21-12.

Tom Mottram (Whitby) had an early exit losing 21-20 to Keith Walker (Barnsley). Harold Hill (Dukes Park) had a good run, beating Trevor Smith (Westgate) 21-9, Bob Brogden (Chesterfield) 21-14 and Chris Bielby (Dukes Park) 21-13 only to be toppled by John Cooper (North Cliff) 21-13 in the quarter final. John, with some excellent bowling eventually made it through to the final with a convincing preliminary win 21-4 over Joe Hobson (Dukes Park) followed by further wins of 21-13 Derek Smith (Dukes Park) and team mate Colin Burns 21-17.

Andy Deighton (Dukes Park) after a prelim win 21-8 was then beaten by fellow club member Pete Richards in the next round 21-15, Pete then losing out against Mick Jessop (Whitby) 21-10.

Kevin Garside, always a force to be reckoned with, first beat Brian Dolphin (Westgate) after a very close game 21-18, then by the luck of the draw met Shirley Dolphin again Westgate whom he beat 21-15 before going on to the semi final by way of Ken Hinchcliffe 21-12.

The semi final saw team mates Derek Swift and John Cooper pitched against each other for a place in the final. The score was close 12-10 to John at the 14th end after which John began to open up a lead to 18-10, Derek only managing another 4 points to leave John the winner 21-14 at end 25. Meanwhile in the other semi, Kevin found the accurate bowling of Mick too much of a handful and only managed to add 4 points to those already on the card, Mick claiming the game 21-7 after only 17 ends.

Both players in the final must surely have been feeling the effects of the very warm weather after five games but nevertheless put up a good performance. There was nothing between them after 14 ends, 10 across, after which John began to draw away until at the 21st end John led 18-11. Mick then only scored another 4 points leaving John the winner 21-15 at end 26. A very well played final and a fitting end to a very enjoyable days bowling.

Club president Brian Cope expressed the usual thanks and appreciation to all concerned, competitors, ladies doing food and drinks, measurers and markers etc and anyone else concerned in making the day a huge success.

Brian then presented prizes to the quarter finalists, semi finalists and beaten finalist Mick, before handing the Graham Walker Trophy for this competition to a very worthy winner, John Cooper. Well played John!

Saturday League

Westgate A (4 points) lost to North Cliff B (12) 191-230.