THE York Amateur Bowling Association finals day produced tremendous sport with some tense and exciting finishes.
In the Consolation Singles, Pete Waddington (Clifton) made it into the final after a convincing 21-10 semi-final win over Graham Patrick (Harrogate).
However, he ran into an in-form Gary Lewington (Holgate WMC) and, despite leading for much of a tight game, he was beaten 21-19.
In the Singles final, Paul Williamson continued Holgate’s season of successes.
He trailed Terry Wheatley (Scarcroft) 15-10 and 20-17 but a superb fightback brought a 21-20 triumph.
Lewington followed up his Consolation win by partnering Alan Phillips to the Pairs title, again after a fine comeback.
Bernard Hill and Kevin Clark (Harrogate) seemed in control as they opened a 23-15 lead with just six ends to play, but the Holgate WMC pair had other ideas and, after winning five of those ends, including a pair of fours, they ran out 28-24 victors.
The Triples final produced the only clear-cut win of the day.
The Holgate WMC trio of Stuart Smith, Mick Crowe and Steve Lea raced 17-1 up after just nine ends against Haxby Road's John Butler, John Stroughair and Ken Harrison. This proved to be a decisive lead and despite a mini rally by the Haxby Road men to pull back to 17-10, a run of three ends to the Holgate WMC triple proved too much, and the game was conceded with two ends to play with the score at 22-10.
The Fours produced another thrilling game.
The team of Harrison, Liddell, Fothergill and Gray (Clifton) started strongly, opening an early 9-2 lead against the four of Lyall, Calpin, Symons and Thompson (Dringhouses).
However the Dringhouses team rallied well and closed the gap to two shots, at 14-12, after 15 ends.
The remaining six ends were nip and tuck but ultimately the honours went to the Clifton four 19-16, the second consecutive year that the Dringhouses team have been beaten in a close final.
Meanwhile, Malton have been crowned champions of the BataGas League after a runaway title success.
Malt won 23 of their 24 matches to finish with 168 points, well clear of runners-up Slingsby.
Swinton were third, with Wigginton fourth. Welham picked up the wooden spoon despite managing to win eight of their 16 games.
• THE RI Amateurs Bowling Club’s new Two-wood Open Triples Tournament takes place at Railway Institute Bowling Green in Ashton Lane, York, on Sunday.
The draw for the 24-team competition will be held at 9.30am, with bowling from 10am to 5pm. The winners will receive a trophy and £150, with £90 to the runners-up and £45 for the losing semi-finalists. A plate competition will carry a first prize of £30, with £15 for the runners-up.
There will be six groups of four with group winners and the two best runners-up qualifying for the knockout stages. The other four runners-up will go into the plate.
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