Pairs showdowns lose initial tightness (From York Press)

Pairs showdowns lose initial tightness

11:09am Thursday 19th April 2012 in Bowls By Ian Clough

CLOSE tussles in the York Indoor Bowls Club ladies and gents Simpson pairs finals faded into emphatic wins.

Only one shot separated the men after five ends and two for the ladies – but it didn’t stay like that.

Emily and Laura Clarke got off to a great start leading 6-1 after three ends but a run of seven winning ends by Helen Walker and Zoe Eagles yielding 20 shots gave them a massive advantage which they did not let slip.

The game finished four ends early with the score standing at 25-9 to give Walker the title for the sixth time and the third with Eagles.

John and David Stroughair had a narrow 6-5 advantage in the men’s final before scoring a single, then a four.

But Ray Calpin and Malcolm Thompson came back by scoring a two, a single, then another two to reduce the arrears to one shot.

But that was as close as they got as the Stroughairs won all but two of the remaining ends to take the title for the eighth time as 22-12 victors.

The Gordon Little Trophy final saw Graham Instone, Bob Blackburn and Neal Macdonald race into an 11-0 lead after four ends only for Mick Wadsworth, Francis Morrissey and Judythe Williams to come back and take the lead for the first time on the 12th at 17-16.

Singles were then swapped but as they went into the last end Wadsworth’s team had a two-shot advantage at 20-18 only for Instone’s team to secure the title with a three from a 21-20 win.

Walker’s successful season continued in the ladies knockout triples as she, Laura and Emily Clarke beat Instone, Sue Kirkpatrick and Joan Jackson to win the trophy for the third year running. It was Walker’s sixth overall, her first being in 1987, five years before the Clarke sisters were born.

Instone’s team got off to a flier, leading 6-3 after five ends before four successes gave Walker’s team another eight shots.

Walker and the Clarke girls won three of the last four ends to take the title 18-11.

The Eric Hopwood Triples was all over as a contest by the sixth end as Charlie Arnett, Dave Pearson and Phil Parsons raced into a 20-0 lead. Barry Walker, Reg Banks and Dudley Williams won five out of seven ends before the final was brought to a finish at 23-9.

Joan Jackson won the over-55s ladies singles.

Leading 6-5, she won four successive ends, scoring ten shots, which proved too much for Pauline Cooper as she could only respond with three singles before Jackson sealed victory with a two and a four.

Barry Walker and John Jennison were involved in a close game in the men’s singles plate. Walker led 16-15 before he sealed the title 21-15.

John Micklethwaite and Chris Bishop were involved in a long vets singles plate final which took 25 ends to complete.

Leading 15-8, Micklethwaite looked to be on course for victory but Bishop came back well with eight winning ends out of nine to take the lead at 18-17. But Micklethwaite drew level and then won with a three.

Neal Macdonald retained the U15s singles trophy after beating Naomi King 15-0 and Emily Clarke, last season’s ladies singles runner-up, went one better as she beat Pauline Cooper.

She made the most of a good start leading 9-0 to finish 21-10.

Alan Vowles only lost five ends as he beat last year’s vets singles winner Ray Calpin 21-7 to win the title for the first time.

The closest of the finals was the U18s singles where Hayley Macdonald and Laura Clarke fought out a tough battle which saw Clarke come back from 14-2 down to 17-16.

With the score 20-16, Clarke needed to move the jack with the last wood to level. But she missed by a whisker to give Macdonald the title for the first time and a double for the family.

York’s League play-off finals got under way with the vets triples and vets fours.

After being runners up for the last four years, Bill Hediso’s team went one better with a comfortable 25-12 victory over Geoff Oglesby’s team.

John Berridge and Cliff Hunter’s team were involved in a close game in the vets triples final.

With Hunter’s men 9-7 up after 13 ends, Berridge’s team hit back with a two, four, and a three to take the title for the first time.