By Stephen Helliwell
Lyndon Harris, of Hill Crest, claimed his second pairs trophy of the 2023 season winning the Well Bowled Halifax Mixed Pairs, at Elland WMC, partnered with his sister June Gaukroger. They defeated Clive and Trish Austin by 15-7 9 in the final. Harris had previously won the George Parkin Pairs, with Phillip Holroyd, in the opening event of the season.
The Hill Crest pair started strongly to take an early 11-2 lead in their opening game against Ben Halliday and Loraine Hurst before eventually winning by 15-8 . They began in a similar fashion in the quarter-final against James and Vickie Senior to lead by 7-1. The Seniors fought back to level the scores at 9 but Harris and Gaukroger recovered to win by 15-10 and went on to reach the final with a 15-3 result in their semi-final against Marie Palmer and Wayne Hudson.
Drawn in the preliminary round, Mytholmroyd’s Clive and Trish Austin were in danger of losing their opening game. They led by 8-3 against Outlane’s Ben Fisher and Kelly Goldthorpe, in her first season, but the Outlane pair fought back to lead by 14-13 before the Austin’s snatched victory with a pair at the last end. Having survived that scare, the found themselves in another close encounter against Aaron Bottomley and Pam Woodhead who led by 7-5 early in the game. The Austin’s went ahead with two threes to lead by11-7 but were only ahead by a single point at 13-12 before scrambling home by 15-12. A less stressful 15-8 victory against Brendan Malone and Linda Stewart secured their place in the final.
In the final Harris and Gaukroger raced into a 9-1 lead. The Austin’s briefly threatened a recovery but, having reduced the gap to three chalks at 6-9, lost the jack to Harris and Gaukroger who held on to claim the title by 15 - 7.
Pictured with the winners is Nick Blackburn (Sponsor) and Association President John Holden