YORK started their North Eastern Ladies League indoor bowls season in excellent style when beating title favourites Selby 96-70.

They won three rinks and picked up eight of the ten points at stake.

Selby got off to a good start - up 21-16 after only five ends and leading in three rinks - but York came back strongly, outscoring them 32-11 over the next five to take an aggregate lead which they held right to the finish.

At home, Brenda Love, Joan Knight, Pat Potter and Pauline Cooper started well, leading 8-1 after five ends, but were pegged back by Jane Simpson’s side to 10-9 before they took control again to lead 19-12 with four ends to play.

A pair of twos by the visitors made the game interesting but it finished with a 22-17 home victory.

Audrey Micklethwaite, Jenny Darrell, Maggie Pallister and Pat Bracken trailed 9-2 to Carol Sarvent`s team after five ends but then won seven successive ends, including a six then a four on the ninth and tenth ends.

With four ends to play they looked home and dry at 21-11 in front but Sarvent`s side pulled back to go into the last end only three shots behind at 21-18. They dropped a single, though, as their comeback ended.

In Selby, Carol Banks, Dot Hill, Sue Kirkpatrick and Melanie Brooke trailed 5-0 after four ends. They then took total control of the game as they won all but two of the remaining ends, scoring a seven on the 11th, to move their score to 20-5 and finish with a comprehensive 39-7 victory.

Joan Jackson, Judythe Williams, Jean Williams and Sheila Turpin were beating Sue Williamson’s team 10-7 after nine ends but then could only win two more and lost 28-13.

On Saturday, York’s men play their first Yorkshire League games of the season with the first division side playing Selby and the division three team up against Harrogate (both games starting at noon).

North Eastern Ladies League

York 96 Selby 70 (P Bracken 22, J Simpson 18; P Cooper 22, C Sarvent 17; S Turpin 13, S Williamson 28; M Brooke 39, M Atkinson 7). York 8 Selby 2.

Tour Match

York 149 County Arts 144 (P Grosvenor 9, D Thompson 31; C Bishop 27, B Shorter 13; P Potter 18, T Webster 17; B Turner 19, L Rowe 14; A May 28 M Hipperson 14; M Bottomley 26, G Anderson 8; J Birch 12, T Brooks 21; M Pallister 10, B Sayer 26).