Bowls: York's victory over Harrogate opens up way to Over-55s title (From York Press)

Bowls: York's victory over Harrogate opens up way to Over-55s title

10:34am Thursday 21st February 2013 in Sport By Ian Clough

BUOYANT York Indoor Bowls Club ‘A’-team are on the verge of the Yorkshire Over-55s League division one title after a hard earned 76-64 victory over Harrogate.

York totalled 15 valuable points to move 13 clear of second-placed North Cave, who have played the same amount of games, and 31 ahead of main rivals Featherstone who have two games in hand with the two meeting a week tomorrow.

The away leg was played first and saw an impressive victory for the team led by Graham Brooke.

Trailing 11-8 after ten ends, they won eight out of ten to go into the last end 24-13 in front before ultimately finishing 24-16 winners.

Graham Instone’s side looked as though they were going to be on the end of big defeat when they trailed 17-9 with five ends to play.

But they did well to win four of the concluding ends to only go down 18-14.

The home teams were confident of victory with a four-shot cushion but this was wiped out by the sixth end as Malcolm Thompson’s side found themselves 9-3 behind and Geoff Walker’s level at 3-3.

Thompson’s team got back into their game by winning nine out of the following 12 ends to lead 20-12 with three to play. They triumphed 23-15.

Walker’s team struggled against Bill Dalton’s side, though they regained the lead on the 19th end when they scored a three to make the score 14-13.

A two gave the visitors the initiative again going into the last where a single yielded a fair share-all at 15-15.