THE 44th York Open Bowls Tournament reached a thrilling finale at Clarence Gardens to crown an “exceptional” week of bowling.

Finals day opened with the conclusion of the men’s and ladies pairs, with both games going down to the wire.

There was no more than three shots between men’s finalists Geoff Walker and Alf Lewis, the 2001 winners, and Hull duo Alistair Cook and Mark Goodfellow.

Heading into the 19th end at 14-14, Cook and Goodfellow picked up a three to lead 17-14.

However, Walker took a three on the last end to force an extra end, which went down to the last bowl as Walker and Lewis won 18-17.

The ladies pairs final between Betty Richardson and Carol Williams, the winners in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008, and Judy Abel and Sandra Grantham ran a similar course.

The four-time victors led 10-9 on the 13th end and they picked up four shots in the next four ends to lead 14-9.

However, Abel and Grantham were not to be denied, picking up threes on the last two ends to win 15-14.

Holders Michael Bruce and Helen Walker took on Hull’s Pauline Veitch and Tim Winter in the mixed pairs final and ran out 16-15 winners.

Veitch and Winter led 10-4 at the halfway point and 13-9 after 13 ends, but Walker and Bruce levelled by the 17th end and, on the next end, Bruce ditched the jack for one to which Winter had no reply.

Melanie Brooke, the 2009 winner, went down 21-12 to 2002 champion Betty Richardson in the final of the ladies singles.

Brooke was 10-8 up after 11 ends, but Richardson picked up a four on the next to take the lead and then powered to victory.

There is a new name on the junior singles trophy as Hayley MacDonald beat Charlotte Clark 21-13 to succeed Scott Burrell as champion.

The men’s singles final spanned 29 ends before coming to a climax before Kevin Liddell finally got the better of pairs winner Walker 21-20.

First time winner Liddell eked out a six-shots lead at 20-14, but Walker took three twos to level at 20-20 before Liddell snatched a single to win the trophy.

Tournament secretary Graham Brooke said: “It was a successful week of exceptional bowling and the finals day was no exception.”