MEN'S pairs holders Tex Stevens and Gary Bunce were sent crashing out of this year's York Open Bowls Tournament.

The York duo were beaten 21-14 by Sunderland pair J Burgher and J Kelso.

The match was tight at first with the North East pairing 8-7 ahead after 11 tight ends. Then Stevens (Holgate) and Bunce (Haxby Road) moved 13-8 ahead after two threes at successive ends.

But it proved short-lived as the Sunderland combination won seven of the last eight ends to record an impressive victory.

H Rhodes (Haxby Road) and Paul Dawson (Bootham) had a close call in their match against Selby pair F Pool and T Quainton. They led 22-13 at 18 ends but a late rally by the Selby pair almost retrieved the situation, They scored five shots at the last end but fell just short of taking the encounter in to an extra end.

Victory in the last three ends wrapped up a superb 24-18 win for P Mattinson (Bootham) and M Stevenson (Northern Ireland).against John Emmerson (Holgate) and A Dunbar (York RI).

The York pair got off to a tremendous start, leading 13-2 after six ends. At 11 ends the game was getting a lot tighter, although Dunbar and Emmerson were leading 14-10. A six on the 18th end saw a big swing in favour of Mattinson and Stevenson but

M Stannard (Haxby Road) and Jim Bone (Clifton) appeared to be heading for the second round when they led 16-10 at the halfway stage but could only win two of the last nine ends and went out 25-19 to Geoff Walker and A Lewis

Youngsters Scott Burrell (Nafferton) and Paul Humphrey (Holgate), who reached the quarter-finals last year, made a promising start at Clarence gardens.

Burrell, aged 11, and 18-year-old Humnphrey beat J Scott and J Anderson (Osbaldwick) 21-12. However, the draw was not been too kind to them and they lost 22-19 to the formidable Hull pairing of S Winter and J Moulds in the next round.

Former champ loses in second round

More big names fell in the York Open Bowls Tournament as the ladies singles' were whittled down to the final four yesterday.

One of the highlights of the day was in the second round, where Jane Ogden (Clarence Ladies) inched past 2001 champion Margaret Moss (Tockwith).

After eight ends, Moss was holding a comfortable 11-4 advantage, but a succession of winning ends took Ogden into a 13-12 lead.

The game see-sawed to Moss at 20-16 to leave her looking the likely winner, but Ogden drew on her reserve strength to win the next few ends and take the match 21-20.

But her heroics failed her in the next round when she lost to Mary Charlton of South Shields 21-13.

Charlton had previously seen off previous finalist Jill Godden 21-19 and Jane Timpson (Riccall) 21-5.

In the quarter-final, she eclipsed another Riccall player, A Badger, 21-15, to reach the semi-finals.

There she will come face-to-face with Betty Richardson, who cruised through her rounds and into the semi-finals with ease.

Last year's champion Joan Parker (Minster Ladies) was the first scalp taken by Shipton's Sandra Grantham 21-9 with Pauline Cooper (Clarence Ladies) the next to tumble, 21-12.

The quarter-final, however, threw up a battle with previous winner Audrey Swann (South Shields). After an excellent game with many telling bowls being played, Grantham had the chance to steal the match from Swann.

Swann was leading 20-18 with the holding shot, and Grantham only needed to knock the holding shot out to take all three bowls for a dramatic finale, but missed it to let Swann go through.

Swann had almost received the shock of her life in an earlier round against Dot Turpin (Minster Ladies). After being tied at 12-12, Turpin took control and raced to 20-13. But with the end in sight, a change of length by the experienced Swann earned her nine shots without reply to clinch it 22-20.

Judy Abel (Shipton) became the fourth qualifier after beating Pauline Veitch (Scarborough) in the second round and then overcoming local bowler Lynne Tattersall (Clarence Ladies). In her quarter-final match, she defeated Mavis Reay 21-12 to secure her place in the semi-finals.

Semi-final draw: J Abel v A Swann, M Charlton v B Richardson.

Updated: 11:11 Thursday, July 29, 2004