YORK skips Iain Boyle and Stuart Bryan each scored a victory to take the club into joint top place in the Famous Grouse Four Nations Top Ten Bowls Classic Fours League at Darlington last night.

Boyle, who lost only once in six regional qualifiers on the way to these grand finals, set the pace with a stirring fight back against East Dorset's Bill Belcher.

Belcher led 9-3 after seven ends but in a match restricted to two hours, Boyle and his clubmates Dudley Williams, Graham Brooke, and Bryan clawed their way back, scoring three singles, a double and a treble over the next six ends to win 11-10.

Bryan took over as skip in the second match and saw off Mark Morhall's Falcon, Chelmsford side 13-9.

That steered York up alongside Scottish club Coatbridge, from near Glasgow, at the top of the 16-strong fours league ... one point ahead of the chasing pack, led by Darlington, Swindon Westlecot and County Antrim.

Meanwhile, in the singles, York's David Stroughair, unbeaten in six regional matches was edged out 19-17 by Folkestone's Gordon Charlton in his opening match, but he scored a battling 18-18 draw against Portsmouth's Iain MacKenzie in round two then edged out Exter's Rob Paxton, the English National Singles runner-up last weekend, 21-18.

Stroughair lay joint seventh in the singles league after three sessions. The tournament continues until Monday.

Updated: 11:58 Saturday, April 14, 2001