New Earswick's Margaret Moss and Gill Clark won the York and District Indoor Bowls Club St Leonard's Hospice Ladies Pairs.

The duo, who won the event in 1998, beat last year's winners, Sue Kirkpatrick and Maureen Walker, three sets to one.

Hospice pairs games are played with two woods, first to score seven and best of five sets.

Moss and Clark won the first set 7-5, but the second set saw Kirkpatrick and Walker win four of the five ends, scoring a maximum four to level the sets.

The third set was even quicker, won 7-0 in four ends by the New Earswick pair who seized the title with a 7-1 victory in the fourth set.

The men's competition proved to be surprisingly one-sided with 1997 winner Mal Harrison, partnered by Phil Parsons, substituting for Mark Harrison, winning 3-0 against Peter Littlewood and John Emmerson.

The first set was quite even, Harrison and Parsons taking a 4-0 lead only for their opponents to pull back and go in front 5-4. However, a three on the seventh end gave Harrison and Parsons first blood.

Littlewood and Emmerson were on the end of a 7-0 whitewash in the second and were beaten 7-5 in the third.

Finals specialists Eddie Howcroft and Betty Richardson won the mixed title, beating Doug Mitchell and Pat Lofthouse 3-0 in sets.

Howcroft was appearing in his third final in 32 hours and Richardson, in for Barbara Stokes, her second in a day.

The first set was closer than the 7-3 score suggests with singles scored on nearly every end. The second set started similarly, Mitchell and Lofthouse opening a 6-3 lead only for Howcroft and Richardson to rally and win 8-6.

The third set saw some excellent bowling from all four players. Howcroft and Richardson took a 6-0 lead after only three ends, but four ends later the score was 6-6.

Needing to win the end to stay in the game Lofthouse laid the winner after her two woods, only for Richardson with her last wood to move it out of the way and lay the winning shot herself.

Mitchell tried to fire, but missed. Howcroft then put his wood in the line of the expected firing shot from Mitchell, which, when it came, only just missed moving his opponent's winning shot.