YORK Indoor Bowls Club's Romans teams so nearly secured their first win of the Yorkshire Over-55s League division two season only to go down by the narrowest of margins.

The Romans fell 75-74 to North Cave Maroon, picking up only four of the 14 available points.

At home, Ray Wynn, Alan Yoward, Steve Lea and Gordon Walker won a topsy-turvy game 19-15.

After being level at 5-5, they went 11-5 in front only to fall 15-14 behind, before winning the last three ends.

John Munday, Ken Robinson, Terry Nicholson and Ron Munro pulled back from 13-6 down to 14-11 but could only win one more end and lost 24-12, leaving York's away rinks with an eight-shot deficit to make up.

Andy Lockwood, Norman Ellis, Dave Preece and Mike Snowden stepped up to the mark as they pulled away from 8-7 to lead 16-7 on their way to an impressive 25-14 victory.

But Pete Waring, Noel Mallen, Dave Clarke and Allan May, despite leading 9-5 after nine ends, lost the following nine to trail 22-9 with three ends to go. They nearly came away with an unlikely team win as they picked up nine shots but the 22-18 loss was not quite enough.

Tomorrow at noon, York Vikings complete their division one fixture against Leeds and York Knights complete their division two fixture against Scarborough.

On Saturday, York IBC host different matches.

At 10am, there is a Yorkshire League division one fixture against North Cave and a local derby with New Earswick.

At 11am, York's ladies play their Yetton Trophy quarter-final against South Forest, of Mansfield. At noon, York face Leeds in Yorkshire League division three, the same time as the Yorkshire Champion of Champions Pairs tie between Harrogate and Scarborough takes place.

At 2pm, Nottingham play Cumbria in their Denny Cup quarter-final, then at 2.30pm the National Mixed Fours Area Final between Harrogate's James Frith's team and Scarborough's Jack Bird's side takes place.

On Sunday, the Thanet Road venue hosts the Civil Service Pairs Qualifiers for the Yorkshire region starting at 9.30am.

Then at noon, Helen Wood's York team play their National Over-50s Triples game against Harrogate, followed at 4pm by a match between two York teams - Dave Stroughair's and John Whiteley's - vying to go further in the men's National Over-50s Triples.