YORKSHIRE’S bowlers are rolling back the years after another peerless display in the Middleton Cup.

The county’s ‘A’ team trounced Lincolnshire 20-2 at Dunnington on Saturday, following on from their opening victory over Lancashire by the same scoreline.

With a two-match points haul higher than anything achieved by Yorkshire in the last decade, the White Rose side are on course to qualify for the All England quarter-finals.

They now face a shoot-out with Cumbria, who beat Lancashire 19-3 at the weekend, at Dunnington on July 9.

The game against Lincolnshire started in a surprisingly quiet and low key fashion, but it soon roared into life.

Yorkshire’s talisman, Mark Walton, of Nafferton BC, steered his rink into an early 9-0 lead, which was soon matched by York RI Amateurs player Paul Humphreys, whose rink built a 7-0 lead of their own.

After ten ends, Yorkshire held a 12-shot lead overall and the lead on four of the six rinks. From that point, the hosts drove home their advantage and after 18 ends their overall lead had rocketed to 37 shots.

One by one the rinks finished and with only Vinnie O’Neil’s rink left on the green, Yorkshire had secured four rink wins.

At 16-13 down with four ends to play, things looked bleak for the Middlesbrough man but, backed by a large Yorkshire crowd, they put together four marvellous ends of bowling to run out 25-16 winners.

The 20-2 triumph means that Yorkshire now lead Cumbria by 13 points, leaving them needing to take five points or more on July 9 to qualify for the national last eight.

More good news for the county followed on Sunday when the junior team went to Wigton BC to take on Cumbria, with the prize being a place in the last 16 of the National Under-25 Double Rink competition in Worthing in August.

The format has been revamped this year, meaning 16 teams qualify for the final stages rather than four as has been the case since the competition’s introduction more than 20 years ago.

Against a tough Cumbria side, the Yorkshire lads ran out winners by only three shots, securing the Tykes’ first-ever qualification for the latter stages. The Yorkshire side included David Attwood and Phil Herridge, both of whom flew the flag for York and RI Amateurs.

Unfortunately, it was not all good news for Yorkshire, as the ‘B’ team suffered a heavy points loss in Cumbria on Saturday, losing 20-2 but by only 11 shots overall.

Only T Richardson’s rink returned victorious, although the Holgate-dominated rink of Nigel Macdonald, Paul Williiamson, Andy Bolder (Nafferton) and Chris King succumbed to only a one-shot defeat on the last end.

This weekend, Yorkshire are in action against Lancashire in the Muras Cup in Manchester.

Phil Parsons, John Walker, Chris King, Humphreys, Attwood, Phil Emmerson and Mark Clark are all in action again for the county.

Also on Saturday in Middlesbrough, a Yorkshire side will host Cumbria in the Armstrong Trophy.

The White Rose line-up includes Shipton’s Shaun Daly, Holgate’s C Sharply and Nestlé’s Bill Waldie, plus R Shirley and D Sever-Topping, of Kirkbymoorside.