Malcolm Gilbert sees off Alan Landers in Bridlington Bay singles merit final

After a series of Doubles Merits, albeit with some slightly different formats, Sunday saw the first of the Singles Merits, the start of qualification for the Summer Champion of Champions (CoC) and the resumption of competition for qualification in the Mick Jessop Cup, probably the “true” Champion of Champions competition as it is restricted to the winners of singles competitions.

It also saw the introduction of a slightly different system of awarding points for CoC qualification with players gaining a point for winning their first game as well as for reaching the quarter finals or beyond.

Inevitably the random draw resulted in some people playing clubmates and in some of the visitors playing others who had travelled in their first games.

The first included Whitby’s Josh Emmerson beating his clubmate Tim Purcell 21-18 and North Cliff’s Dave Moment winning 21-13 against Judith Andrews while the second saw Dave Knights (Sheffield) going through 21-13 against Mo Chambers (Castleford), Stuart Thompson (Pontefract) beating Tony Chambers (Castleford) 21-14 and Richard Jackson (Doncaster) putting out Andy Webb (Alverthorpe).

With 54 entrants ten bowlers had to wait until after midday for the second round to commence even with three on the card and using five jacks.

Emmerson now came up against Robert Child (North Cliff) and went out of the competition 21-7 while Knights played another visitor, Malcom Gilbert (Huddersfield) and lost 21-11.

Home bowler Jackie Turner lost 21-18 to Amanda Hagen (Alverthorpe) while Jackson put paid to Thompson’s hopes with a 21-15 win.

In the third round Gilbert beat Child 21-16 while Geoff Watson (Whitby) went through 21-14 against Hagen.

Alan Landers (North Cliff) crushed Westgate’s Larry Dixon 21-6 while Jackson edged through 21-19 against Association President Ed McCormack (North Cliff).

In the top half of the quarte finals Ian Richardson (North Cliff) put paid to his clubmate Alan Lee 21-17 while Gilbert beat Katie Morgan (Doncaster) 21-13.

In the bottom half of the draw Jack Richardson (Hunmanby)ended Watson’s interest 21-12 and Alan Landers (North Cliff) beat Jackson 21-17.

The semi-finals saw Gilbert just beating Ian Richardson 21-20 while Landers had a more comfortable 21-11 win against Jack Richardson.

The final was, in the end, another very close contest.

Landers won the first end only for Gilbert to score eight in the next six ends to lead 11-4.

Landers then won six of the next seven ends to lead 13-12. Gilbert then came back with five in four ends to lead 17-13 but Landers replied with a pair of twos to level the scores.

Two singles for Gilbert put him on the edge of victory at 19-17 only for Landers to score a single and a two to lie “all but”.

Gilbert’s nerve held though and he won the next two ends by singles to win the competition 21-20, to be the first leader of the CoC qualification list and to qualify for the Mick Jessop Cup.

This coming Sunday sees another Doubles Merit at Westgate.

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

Manor Road’s Borough Bowling Club played their annual Wally Day Cup on Saturday.

The first semi final saw Robin Daplyn beat Les Ramm 21-13 to

take the first place in the final. Barrie Watson took the other place with a 21-9 victory over Gary Thornton.

In the final Watson raced off into a 7-0 lead and after Daplyn came back to 7-3 Watson found another gear and went 16-3 up before completing a 21-4 victory.