The Men’s 1st round was started this evening, with 31 ties being played, and perhaps there was one or two surprise results.
There was an impressive away win for the New Delaval Knights quartet, named player Ryan Warnes-Hall but skipped by Aaron Robson, who beat Benfield’s Jonty King at Benfield 16 – 13. There was a good win at Forth also, where Tom McMullen defeated St. Georges Phil Harvey 18 – 8. It was not a good evening for Phil’s father Steve as well, where his Gosforth four lost narrowly at Cramlington to Bob Harrison 13 – 10.
At Forest Hall there was a decisive home win for Chris Coan defeating Portland’s Gren Richardson 19 – 3. Coan will next face Seaton Sluice’s Iain Dickinson who got the better of club mate John Watson.
Current holders or two of the rink that lifted the title in 2019 – Gosforth’s Jimmy Curtis & Brian Houghton, teaming up with Richard Curtis and Les Yeomans defeated Rothbury and county colleague Graeme Donkin 15 – 10. At the west avenue club there was the comeback of the night by the Garden Village four skipped John Devlin, who came back from 12 – 5 down, to score on the last 5 ends to win 13 – 12 (scoring 2 on the final end), against Simon Richardson (named entry Peter Duffy). The other tie at Gosforth saw Mick McGreevy’s four defeat Billy Gibson (Gosforth Empire) 19 – 10, and McGreevy will now face Rockcliffe’s Darryl Illingworth, who beat Alnwick’s George Batey away.
In other notable games Percy’s Stuart Graham- Scott beat Backworth Welfare’s Steve Welsh, Gosforth’s Chris Yeomans won at Hexham House’s Clive Knott 12 – 5 and St. Georges’ Gary Myerscough recorded a good home win over Gosforth’s George Bennett.
Not all the results are in – which is a surprise as the games are now only 15 ends!