YORKSHIRE Bowls Association have been rocked by two heavy defeats in senior competitions.

Yorkshire’s top eight players travelled to Keswick to take on pre-season favourites Cumbria in the Balcomb Trophy.

Immediately the match was taken away from them with England player Ben Sherwen establishing a 15-1 lead over fellow international Ben Render (Nafferton) after just five ends.

In the other rink, Paul Humphreys (York RI Amateurs) was struggling to keep pace with Stephen Farish’s impressive team and, even though their scores were levelled up by 14 ends, Sherwen remained in unrelenting form in his contest as he led his side to a 31-8 advantage.

By this time, Farish was one ahead of Humphreys and, with the overall score standing at 43-19 to the Cumbrians, Yorkshire conceded the fixture having been thoroughly outplayed.

The news from the Alsop Cup was no better as Yorkshire succumbed to a 19-3 home defeat by Durham at Brotton.

The White Rose side failed to build on an encouraging start which saw them level with their opponents at five ends.

The rink of Phil Parsons (York RI Amateurs) in particular struggled and were no match for Dale Oram’s side.

Spirited attempts by Tony Horobin (York RI Amateurs), Pete Lund (Selby) and Chris Thomas’ (Redcar Borough Park) were also unsuccessful, as they all finished on the wrong end of losing scorelines.

Phil Reeves (Holgate WMC) did manage to salvage a draw and Terry Richardson (Hutton Rudby) provided the sole White Rose success on a disappointing afternoon for the team.

Defeat leaves Yorkshire struggling in the Alsop Cup group in third place with matches against Northumberland and Lancashire remaining.