Hunmanby's Lisa Watson and home star Adam Chilvers win North Cliff Drawn Pairs Merit

After several weekends of indifferent weather this Sunday was relatively warm, mainly sunny and above all there was no rain. With an odd number of entrants one of the early losers had a “second life” with the “orphan” player, writes David Muir.

The draw threw up the usual mixture of strong looking partnerships, partnerships of an experienced player with a relatively new player and, inevitably, a few cases of clubmates being paired.

In the first category Pam Watson (Hunmanby) was paired with Jo Leeman (Whitby), Ray Leeman (Whitby) with Billy Holdsworth (Hunmanby) and Sue Holdsworth (Hunmanby) with Alan Landers (North Cliff).

The second included Carmel Flynn (Eastfield) & Jack Richardson (Hunmanby); the third included home bowlers Robert Child & Greg Long and Whitby’s Alan Boland & Ian Harland.

In the first round Watson and Leeman beat Kenny Wale (Whitby) and Pam’s husband and Hunmanby clubmate Steve Watson 21-19 while daughter Lisa Watson (Hunmanby) and Adam Chilvers (North Cliff) beat the strong Whitby pairing of Geoff Watson and Josh Emmerson also 21-19.

Perhaps the outstanding performance in this round was Flynn and Richardson beating Holdsworth and Leeman 21-15 but there was another upset, although less surprising, when Ian Richardson (North Cliff) and Steve Dover (Whitby) put Holdsworth and Landers out 21-12.

In the second round Stuart Thompson (Pontefract) and Emmo Emmerson (Whitby) beat homester Alan Lee and Tony Chambers (Castleford) 21-17 while Nigel Trotter (North Cliff) and Tony Bland (Borough) went through 21-18 against home duo Robert Child and Greg Long. Watson and Leeman had a 21-14 win against Boland and Harland and Watson and Chilvers beat Mo Chambers (Castleford) and Geoff Oldham (Hunmanby) 21-15 to set up a mother-daughter clash in the quarter-finals.

In the bottom half of the draw Flynn and Richardson pulled off another good win beating another home pairing of Ed McCormack and Pat Germaine 21-11 while Dover and Richardson went down 21-12 to another North Cliff pairing, Tim Coyne and Tony Flynn.

Linda Armstrong (Castleford) and Scott Wardman (North Cliff) had a fairly comfortable 21-14 win against David Muir (Eastfield) and Ronnie Noble (Borough) and, in the final game of the round, Danny Cooper (North Cliff) and Joyce Harland (Whitby) beat yet another North Cliff pair, Dave Moment and Judith Andrews 21-15

In the first quarter-final Trotter & Bland came through 21-18 against Thompson & Emmerson but only after Thompson & Emmerson had come back from being seven or eight shots down.

The Watson mother and daughter clash had an even more dramatic finish when, with the score at 20-20 and Watson and Leeman holding a winning position Lisa Watson fired and put the jack in the ditch to kill the end.

In the replayed end Watson and Leeman again were lying game when Lisa struck again but this time to score the winning chalk.

In the bottom half of the draw, Flynn and Richardson fought well against Coyne and Flynn but went down 20-15 while Cooper and Harland had a 21-11 win over Armstrong and Wardman.

In the first semi Watson and Chilvers had a 21-19 win over Trotter and Bland while Coyne and Flynn beat Cooper and Harland 21-16 to set up a final featuring three home bowlers.

Watson & Chilvers struck first to lead 8-4 after 2 ends only for Coyne & Flynn to take 4 of the next 6 ends to make it 10-10. Another 5 winning ends in the next 7 for Coyne & Flynn saw Watson & Chilvers trail 14-17. A pair of 2s saw Watson & Chilvers regain the lead 18-17 only for Coyne & Flynn to score another 2, but Watson & Chilvers scored 3 singles to win 21-19.

The trophy was presented by the competition sponsor, David Hill of North Cliff.

Next Sunday sees the first Summer Singles Merit at Bridlington Bay.

The start time is 9.30am and that anyone wanting to play must register beforehand as the draw will be made in advance, probably on Saturday.

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