THE mixed pairs in the York Open Bowls Tournament have reached the semi-final stages.

Gill and Ray Clark (Tockwith) will play Lyn Tattersall (Clarence) and Eddie Howcroft (Haxby Road) while J Burgher and A Swann (South Shields) will face A Illingworth (Scarcoft Ladies) and Gary Bunce (Haxby Road).

Kath and Brian Hardcastle (Nestl Rowntree) made excellent progress to the fourth round. They were in action at Glen Gardens where they beat M Reay and B Upsall (Sunderland), O McCowan (Bert Keech) and Geoff Walker (Hall Rd) and D and J Simpson (Riccall).

But the Hardcastles run was ended when they lost 20-15 to Illingworth and Bunce, who got off to a flying start leading 8-2 after five ends. Eight shots in four ends gave the Hardcastles the lead, however Illingworth and Bunce finished with three successive three's to win 20-15.

Illingworth and Bunce crushed L Waby and Rene Stathers (Pocklington) 27-9 in the quarter-finals.

Waby and Stathers had beaten Pat Foster (Shipton) and Peter Berry (Clifton) 17-12 after a late burst of shots opened up a big gap.

Margaret Smith (Wigginton) and Colin Sharpley (West Park) had an extra end victory over Pat Walker (Clarence) and Ralph Tiplady (Hull Road) at West Bank Park. They went on to lose against Burgher and Swann having gone into the final end with a three-shot advantage.

Burgher and Swann beat K Calvert and B Pickles (Dishforth) 24-11 The game was evenly poised after 14 ends with Burgher and Swann two shots ahead, but Calvert and Pickles conceded 11 shots over the next three ends.

Calvert and Pickles had earlier knocked out Maureen and Barry Walker 17-10.

At Clarence Gardens, Melanie and Graham Brooke (Bert Keech) faced Pauline Veitch (Scarborough) and Tim Winter (Hull). The Brookes were level at nine ends, but were down by two shots at the 12th, however the next few ends brought ten shots, this was too much for Veitch and Winters, who lost 19-16.

However, the Brookes came unstuck against Gill and Ray Clark in the quarter-finals. The Brookes were 16-14 down after 13 ends, but a sudden burst of scoring over the next few ends took the Clarks to an unassailable lead 27-14.

In the other half of the same section, Betty Richardson (Bert Keech) and Ian Hodge (Shipton) were in outstanding form, removing Barbara and Brian Sprigg (Shipton) 18-16 then also taking out Pat Wilson (Railway Institute) and Frank Turner (Haxby Road) 20-13 and then the Northern Ireland pairing of Matt and Irene Stevenson 31-8.

But they could not maintain their great form and crashed 27-7 to Tattersall and Eddie Howcroft in the quarter-finals.

Tattersall and Howcroft had earlier defeated Carol and Vie Thompson and then V Watson and J Holborn (Sunderland).

The men's four wood singles starts tomorrow and the junior singles on Friday.

Updated: 11:00 Wednesday, July 28, 2004