Visitors Stuart Thompson and Andy Webb net Whitby crown green bowls merit win

Visitors Stuart Thompson, right, and Andy Webb, left, earned the Whitby crown green bowls merit win.

Twenty-five pairs battled it out on a good, but rather damp, green, writes David Muir.

The preliminary round saw the strong Hunmanby pair of Phill Todd & Jack Richardson lose 21-5 albeit to another strong pairing of Danny Cooper (North Cliff) & Andy Adamson (Borough).

In contrast the home pair of Sue Green & Alan Boland had to fight out a 21-20 win over Ashley Douglas (North Cliff) & Larry Dixon (Westgate).

The Winter Merit at Whitby finalists are, from left, Colclough, Sillitoe, Whitby chairman Emmerson, Webb and Thompson

In the first round Danny Sillitoe & Thomas Colclough (Doncaster) beat Barrie & Caroline Watson (Borough) 21-16 and Stuart Thompson (Pontefract) & Andy Webb (Alverthorpe) sunk home pair Sue Green & Alan Boland 21-14, and Linda Armstrong (Castleford) & Billy Holdsworth (Hunmanby) had an impressive 21-16 win over home pair Sue Emmerson & Kenny Wale.

In the quarter-finals Sillitoe & Colclough beat Whitby pairing, father and son Emmo & Josh Emmerson, 21-11 and Richard Jackson (Doncaster) & Amanda Hagen (Alverthorpe) beat Cooper & Adamson 21-14.

Thompson & Webb ended the hopes of another Whitby pairing, Paul Morgan & Geoff Watson 21-11 and yet another home pair, Steve Dover & Eddie Maxwell, went down 21-18 to Armstrong & Holdsworth.

In the first semi Sillitoe & Colclough progressed 21-15 against Jackson & Hagen to set up a final against Thompson & Webb who beat Armstrong & Holdsworth 21-19.

The final started with Thompson & Webb building an 11-6 lead over Sillitoe & Colclough.

Thompson & Webb then pulled away to lead the final 16-8, but Sillitoe & Colclough then played superbly to only trail 18-17.

A 2 to Thompson & Webb was answered by a 3 from Sillitoe & Colclough to make it 20-20 before Thompson & Webb scored the decisive 1 to win 21-20.

Twenty-four first game losers entered consolation, Tea & Biscuits (T&B), competition which was run as a drawn pairs with 10 on the card because of time constraints.

Eight of the 12 pairs played a preliminary round in which all the games were comfortable wins.

In the quarter-finals Tony Chambers 9Castleford & Kenny Rodgers (Whitby) had a close, 21-20 win over Adam Chilvers (North Cliff) & Caroline Watson, David Muir (Eastfield) & Jennie Allen (Hunmanby) beat Whitby pair Joyce & Ian Harland 21-17, Barrie Watson & Jack Richardson went down 21-14 against Jo Leeman (Whitby) & Nigel Trotter (North Cliff) while Phil Todd & Ian Richardson (North Cliff) beat Sue Holdsworth (Hunmanby & Judith Andrews (North Cliff) 21-15.

In the first semi-final Muir & Allen fought out a tight match against Chambers & Rodgers coming through 21-19 which was also the score by which Todd & Richardson beat Leeman & Trotter.

In the final Muir & Allen got off to a flying start scoring 8 before Todd & Richardson scored.

As is often the case the winning scores, especially the final one, were a bit elusive but Muir & Allen ran out the winners after 12 ends by 21-15.

Next Sunday, sees the winter season closing with the Champion of Champions being played at Borough on Sunday.

There will be a Tea & Biscuits for non-qualifiers, drawn at 9am, with the main competition starting at about 11am.

The T&B entrants should be there by 8:55am to enable the draw to be done in good time and qualifiers for the main competition must be there by 10:45am.