Haxby Road bowlers came up trumps in a remarkably close Clarence Gardens Bowling Association Double Triples 2009 tournament.

The competition, run on a handicap basis, featured many twists and turns, with Haxby Road taking the title on shots difference ahead of Clifton.

With two points available to each triple and two points for the aggregate, the four Super Group qualifiers battled hard to win the individual triples points on offer and also to limit the damage on shots aggregate.

The closeness of the competition was reflected in the fact that in the first five Super Group matches, aggregate differences were no more than three shots.

Initially, 2008 winners Clarence Ladies had looked set to retain their title, and then Bootham got the ascendancy after coming from a hopeless position to claw back two rink points and lose by only three shots on aggregate to Haxby Road before defeating Clarence Ladies 4-2. Again only three shots was the aggregate difference.

But Haxby Road then came into their own. After losing game one to Clarence Ladies 4-2, but by just two shots overall, they held their nerve to fend off Bootham 4-2 by four shots and found themselves needing to win 6-0 against Clifton in game six to match Bootham’s tournament haul of 12 points and take the championship on shots difference.

Clifton were in no mood to just make up the numbers in the finale and had looked like winning each of their first two matches but lost out in both cases on the closing ends.

Nevertheless, after a wonderful tussle, Haxby Road’s threesomes skipped by Ken Harrison and Gary Bunce won 21-11 and 12-7 respectively to win the Brian Bunce Trophy for the Green Tops, whose full squad was Bunce and Harrison, Alan Clapham, Mick Stannard, Steve Hall, Jim Bone, Ron Newton, Mike Moss, and John Stroughair.