James Wilcox beats brother Jonny to win Gambart Baines Cup final

Of the entrants 18 were members of five of the nine local clubs.

There were six previous winners, some of them multiple winners, reigning champ James Wilcox and his father Peter Wilcox (both Crossgates, Leeds), Callum Wraight (Shrewsbury), centenary winner Ira Jeffers (Crossgates), Pete Gilliver (Doncaster) and Gareth Coates (Halifax).

Although there was no seeding as such players who had travelled together were allocated to different groups in the draw and North Cliff players were “placed” on the public greens to prevent any home green advantage.

One problem with using three greens was that it was not possible to divide the number of players equally between the greens to arrive at the quarter finals with 8 players so 24 played on the No. 1 public green and 24 on North Cliff.

The remaining 48 played on the No. 2 public green where the round of 16, the quarter finals, semi-finals and final were also intended to be played. In the event play on the Green 2 lagged behind the other greens, mainly because of games taking longer than anticipated, and so the round of 16 games were spread between the three greens and half of the original Green 2 squad finished on Green 1.

The quarter finals and subsequent rounds were all played on Green 2.

Gary Thornton (Eastfield), Kenny Wale (Whitby) and Danny Cooper, Alan Landers and Callum Malone (all North Cliff). made it to the last 32.

At this stage Malone lost to previous winner Coates, Thornton lost to Darryl Harrop (Alverthorpe) and Cooper lost to Stuart Thompson (Castleford).

In the round of 16 Landers went down 21-15 to Jonny Wilcox (Crossgates) but Wale survived beating Jamie Winterburn (Tadcaster) 21-13. Wale then beat Richard Jackson (Thongsbridge) 21-19 in the quarter final.

In the other quarter finals James Wilcox followed up a 21-14 victory over Callum Wraight with a 21-19 win against Stephen Walker (Littlemoor), Danny Thickett (Dearne Sports) beat Kez Smith (Crossgates) 21-11 and Jonny Wilcox beat Gareth Coates 21-16.

In the first semi James Wilcox beat Thickett 21-14 and Wale finally ran out of steam against Jonny Wilcox, 21-8, to set up a final between a pair of brothers.

The early stages of the final between the right-handed James and the left-handed Jonny were very even but at about the half way point, in scores anyway, James started to pull away and, having the jack in his hand for most of the time, began to dictate matters and eventually ran out the winner by 21-13.

The presentations were made by Cllr John Ritchie, the Charter Mayor of Scarborough and main sponsor, George Roberts of G Roberts. James Wilcox will have his name inscribed on the main cup, which is kept safely in the Town Hall at Scarborough, but receives another, rather smaller, cup to hold for one year in addition to the £1,000 first prize.

Jonny received £400, the losing semi-finalists won £200 each with quarter finalists getting £100 each and round of 16 received £50 each.

The day before, Robin Hood’s Bay hosted their Open Doubles Merit with a full house of 32 pairs entering.

In the top half of the draw Gary Thornton (Eastfield) and Callum Malone (North Cliff) reached the final beating some very strong pairs, Stuart Thompson and Andy Webb (Wakefield) 21-14, Billy Holdsworth (Hunmanby) and Simon Rhodes (Doncaster) 21-13, Alan Landers and Ian Richardson (both North Cliff) 21-14 and Tim Purcell and Ray Leeman (both Whitby) 21-11.

In the bottom half of the draw Stephen Walker (Littlemoor) and Craig Hopwood (Castleford) beat Sue Holdsworth (Hunmanby) and Jo Leeman (Whitby) 21-10, Sue Green and Allison Roe (both Whitby) 21-14, Phil Todd and Geoff Oldham (both Hunmanby) 21-15 and Pam and daughter Lisa Watson (both Hunmanby) 21-16.

The final was a one-sided affair with the in-form Walker and Hopwood winning 21-9 although this was down to the fact that the winners played very well, maybe just a game too far for new pair Thornton and Malone.