Brookes bags open success in Classic

NICKY BROOKS

TONGE’S Nicky Brooks landed his first major open handicap title when he beat team-mate Jimmy Derby 21-17 in the final of the £1,550 J W Lees Classic at Hopwood Unionist Club, Heywood.

Brooks, who pocketed £500, bowled superbly on finals day, disposing of Springbank’s Martin Hodson 21-19 in the last 16, Middleton’s Garry Coverdale 21-12 in the quarter-finals, and another Tonge player, Darren Griffiths, 21-18, in the semi-finals.

Derby reached the final with a 21-18 victory over Andrew Cairns (Rawtenstall), a 21-16 verdict against John Pearson (Bury), and a dramatic 21–20 semi-final success against Chris Brown (Sheffield).

Brown defeated Tonge’s Gary Ellis 21-8 in the quarter-finals, the latter having beaten Nimble Nook’s Andrew Buckley by the same score in the last 16.

Two more Tonge players, Steve Squire and Matt Gillies, were last-16 casualties, Squire losing 21-11 to Griffiths, and Gillies 21–16 to Coverdale.

Brooks was out of luck in the second round of the Joe Gateley Classic at Middleton Conservative Club, losing 21-19 to Silsden’s Dave Scott.

Ellis defeated Peter Fielding 21-6 to book his place on finals day, while the other qualifiers were Hopwood’s Paul Wakeling and Halifax’s Graham Hickey.




ELLIS suffered defeats in two big finals at the weekend.



Moorside-based Yorkshireman Graeme Wilson beat him 31-18 to land the £1,200 top prize in the Wigan Subscription Classic, Wilson having defeated Warrington’s Tommy Johnstone by the same score in the semi-finals. Ellis defeated Cairns 31-28.

Paul Dudley (Radcliffe) proved to be Ellis’s nemesis in the Greater Manchester Merit final held at Winton Social.

Dudley, who had beaten Gary’s younger brother Greg 21-20 in the last eight, recorded a 21-15 final victory to book his place in the All-England Merit and the Champion Of Champions’ event in Blackpool.

Springbank’s Jim Hynes reached the semi-finals at Winton, at which stage he lost 21-8 to Dudley.




THE finals of the Chadderton League’s President’s Handicap will be held at Crompton BC on Saturday (practice 6.30pm, start/strike-out 7pm).



Mike Flitcroft (Dukinfield Central) handicap 2; Mark Hulston (Stalybridge Rec) 1; Paul Leah (Waterloo and Taunton) scr; Melvyn Lund (Werneth Cricket) 5; Dave McGuinness (Stalybridge Rec ‘B’) 5; Dave Robinson (Springbank) 1; Phil Taylor (Copster Park ) 5; Ray Tracey (British Aerospace ‘A’) 4.