THE women's county finals proved very rewarding for York Ladies bowler Melanie Brooke.

York Ladies took part in all but the two wood singles and Brooke, of Bert Keech, won two titles.

The finals were hosted by the

president of the Yorkshire County Women's Bowling Association, Ingrid Robinson, at her home club Springhead, Hull, and it was in the pairs that Brooke struck first.

Paired with Mavis Claire they defeated Sue Kirkpatrick and Pat Wilson (York RI) 25-15.

Then she teamed up with Trish Stevens and Doreen Fennel to win the triples title, beating the Easingwold trio of D Thompson, S Roocroft and M Lilleymanin.

At halfway the Bert Keech team were five shots down but a good second half left them with a six shot advantage on the last end.

Knowledge of the green gave Sue Cotton (Hornsea) a considerable advantage over Maureen Thomas (Poppleton) and she had a comfortable win in the singles.

In the fours Clarence Ladies, whose team saw Pauline Cooper teamed with Pat, Maureen and Helen Walker (York), faced Jean Pinder's four on their own green.

Clarence found the pace and took an early lead. They then dropped five shots on the 18th end, but they recovered with one then two on the last to take the title.

Joan Cowan, of Middlesbrough, won the two wood singles.

The men of Bert Keech also had a good weekend winning the Marshall Shield - the County Knockout Trophy.

Playing at Kirkbymoorside, they beat Guisborough's King George V by six shots in the semis and then moved to Malton for the final and beat Hull YPI after 20 ends.

the final of the York Veterans Bowling Championship play-offs at Acomb saw West Park 'B' score one shot at the first end against Bert Keech 'C'.

They did not score again until the 12th end to make the score 23-2.

The final result was 32-5 in favour of Bert Keech whose winning rink was John Berridge, John Robinson, Derek Phelps and Bob Edwards.

In the game for third/fourth place match Holgate were a man short and this cost them the match against Dunnington 'C'.

Holgate scored 23 shots to Dunnington's 18, but the 25 per cent reduction meant Dunnington 'C' won by three-quarters of a shot. The winning rink was Tom Sellers, Roy Calvert, Malcolm Johnson and Cyril Egarr.

The trophies were presented by Geoff Walker, President of the York ABA.

The newly instituted Triples Competition reached the closing stages and the quarter-finals resulted in comfortable victories for Barbican, Holgate, Ainsty 'A' and Acomb 'A' over Osbaldwick 'A', Scarcroft, Nestl 'C' and Dunnington 'C' respectively.

The semi-finals played at Railway Institute were much closer games, Barbican beating Holgate by four shots and Ainsty 'A' beating Acomb 'A' by three shots.

The final was played at Poppleton and resulted in a win for Barbican over Ainsty 'A' 20-17. The winning rink was George Scruton, Les Redhead and Gordon Walker.

The trophies to the winners and runners-up were presented by Alan Race, of Poppleton BC.

The annual fixture between the Executive Committee and League Champions was played at Copmanthorpe. The league champions won four rinks, the Executive won two.

Stamford Bridge beat Welham 78-60 in the Yorkshire District No 5 Club Knockout Final played at Driffield.

A sluggish green following a heavy downpour in the morning was reflected in a low scoring start which saw Stamford Bridge lead 17-14 after five ends.

The green quickened in warm sunshine and Welham inched ahead on two rinks.

However, the Stamford Bridge rink of A Moore began to establish a good lead so by halfway Bridge led 35-26.

After 15 ends Welham had fought back, leading on three of the four rinks 12-9, 18-10 and 11-9. Moore's rink continued to impress, leading 20-6, but Bridge were only 48-47 ahead.

Welham could not maintain their recovery and Stamford Bridge inched towards victory, leading by four shots overall with three ends left. Stamford Bridge won the crucial 19th end on all four rinks to increase their lead to 19 shots and it proved too much for Welham.

Gordon Markham, of Driffield BC, presented the cup to D Walton, the Stamford Bridge captain, and medallions to all the players.

The Stamford Bridge team was (skips first): R Machen, F Rothwell, F Pearson and C Boothroyd (won 15-14); D Hutchinson, D Lawson, D Andrew and K Hutchinson (lost 17-23); A Spencer, M Jennison, V Redshaw and D Walton (won 18-14); A Moore, C Tate, J Moore and J Apps (won 28-9.

District No 5 Triples League have a few vacancies for the 2001 season. The league has three divisions.

Contact Peter Lees (tel 01723 865896) before September 20 for further details.

The semi-finals and final of Kirkbymoorside Bowling Club's Hargreaves Quarries Floodlit Triples Competition will be played on Sunday, the semi-finals starting at 4pm and the final at 7pm. The competition is now sponsored by RMC Aggregates (Northern) Ltd.