YORK Indoor Bowls Club’s New Year’s Eve pairs competition proved to be as popular as ever.

A full complement of players saw three teams finish their qualifying matches on maximum points following three straight wins which provided mouth-watering semi-finals.

Phil Parsons and Paul Milliner topped the league with a shots difference of +28 and were drawn against Mike Wadsworth and Mike Bottomley who had drawn their first game then won the next two to qualify in fourth place.

Parsons and Milliner found themselves 5-1 down before turning the game round with a five and reaching the final with a 8-7 victory.

The other semi-final pitched father against daughter when second-placed Nigel Macdonald, partnered with Jean Carter, took on third-placed Hayley Macdonald and Michelle Ellis.

Two threes got Carter and Nigel Macdonald on their way, taking full advantage to win 8-5.

The final saw Carter and Macdonald scoring a brace of twos before Parsons and Milliner countered with a three. A couple of singles increased the lead before the game drew level with a two, then a single, to go into the last end with everything to play for.

Carter and Macdonald came out on top with a single to take the title 7-6.

Mike Snowden and John Orchard had been in the top two going into the last round of matches and surprisingly lost which meant they went into the plate semi-finals.

There they faced Joan Knight and Bill Carter who had gone into the last round in 15th position before winning their last game to occupy the last plate qualifying position.

Trailing 2-1, Orchard and Snowden hit back with a three then a four to take a big lead, which they kept to the end as the game finished 11-4.

The other plate semi-final saw Sue Allen and Pam Richardson up against Harley Wenham and Jenny Bottomley. Again it proved a one-sided game as Richardson and Allen turned on the pressure to win 11-2.

Richardson and Allen kept the momentum going into the final where they picked up a three on the first end followed by three more winning ends to lead 7-0 lead.

Singles were swapped between the opponents over the remaining ends before Richardson and Allen took the plate as 9-2 victors.