YORK had the upper edge against Hull 'A' in the Top Ten Tournament beating them 86-64 on aggregate thanks to the pairing of Iain Boyle and Graham Instone.

They had a brilliant start, leading 16-0 after eight ends, and only lost two ends as they strolled home 35-4.

Paul Mooring, Mick Parker and Philip Scott were playing at home in the triples and they looked to have turned the corner as they scored a seven on the 14th end to lead 17-13. But they got stuck on it and it was only thanks to a single on the last end that they managed to draw their game 18-18.

David Stroughair was involved in a tough game at Hull against Alan Croft in the singles and was losing 17-9 but pulled it back to 17-16 only to lose the game after dropping a three then a two 21-16.

Michael Bruce, Graham Brooke, Eddie Howcroft and Phil Parsons looked to have the fours' event sewn up when they led 17-11 with time for only five ends to play but they lost all of them and the game 20-17.

York picked up eight points to Hull 'A' team's seven. York are in third place, 29 points behind leaders Selby but have two games in hand.

Their next game in the competition is on Sunday, January 4, when they play Metrodome at noon, with the pairs and triples at home.

Meanwhile, Malcolm Harrison and Phil Parsons got off to a flier against Peter Littlewood and John Emmerson in the Men's Hospice pairs, winning the first of the best of five sets final 7-0.

They took the second set 7-1 before losing the third 7-3. In the fourth set Harrison and Parsons took a 4-2 lead before Littlewood and Emmerson pulled back to 5-3 and were picking up their game until Parsons put two woods next to the jack.

Littlewood responded but just missed moving into position. All Harrison needed to do was to put his woods at the back in case Emmerson moved the jack but he failed to do so and the title went to Harrison and Parsons for the second time in four years.

In the mixed pairs final, Frank Turner and Brenda Love won the first set relatively easily 7-4. However, the second set proved to be exciting as Carol and Graham Instone took a 6-2 lead after being 2-0 down, but this was countered by four winning ends to crucially give Turner and Love a 2-0 lead in sets.

The third set also proved to be close with the game tied at 4-4 before the Instones scored a two, followed by a single, to give them a chance, but it wasn't to last as Turner and Love coasted through the fourth set to win 7-1.

Peter Littlewood and Ann Sharpley couldn't have had a worse start to defend their York and District's Christmas mixed pairs title as they found themselves 13-0 down.

That included a 'hot shot' eight, after only three ends to Maureen and Barry Walker.

The Walkers kept up the pressure and extended their lead to 25-6 after 12 ends before Littlewood and Sharpley started to claw back at the deficit by winning six of the next seven ends to make the score 26-20 with two ends to play.

The Walkers won the penultimate end to leave the holders needing a seven to take the game into an extra end, a task too great as they could only score a single, making the final score 27-21 to the Walkers.

Updated: 10:35 Wednesday, December 31, 2003