THE first two Worth Valley competitions of the season were completed at the weekend up at a sunny Highfield, where two Cross Roads players took the honours.

In the Foster Cup Handicap, Trevor Hargreaves took first place after a comfortable 21-8 victory over Paul McHale, of Keighley BC. It was Hargreaves's third victory in this event.

Losing in the semis were Gary Hodge and Marcus Grundy, who led Hargreaves 19-11 before he ran out victorious.

In the Foster Cup Handicap, Stan Walsh beat Ann Longden, of Rolls Royce, 21-13 in fine style.

Losing in the semis were Peter O’Neill and Nigel Hall, both of Keighley BC.

The Skipton Veterans put up a decent effort in the home leg at Broughton Road against Huddersfield to record a 16-12 victory, after sharing the winners and having two narrow defeats by a single point. Showing improved form were Derek Seed, David Jacques, Cliff Taylor and Brian Farrange. But the away team could not match this at Thongsbridge and only Alistair Keighley had anything to show for his efforts as the team were well beaten 22-6. Their next match on June 1 is against Wakefield.

Yorkshire Parks made the expected good start to the season beating Cheshire with some ease although both local reps. Peter Clark and Andrew Tate suffered defeat.

The Yorkshire Ladies made their expected good start in the County Championship with an easy win over North Lancashire and Fylde with Sharon Gadd excelling in the away leg at Ashton BC in Preston.

In the Federation District matches, locals had mixed fortunes but Mark Barker and Billy Cater registered good wins as Airedale ‘A’ narrowly beat Bury over two legs whilst Chris Wilson won for Bradford against Ormskirk.

Meanwhile, in the Airedale ‘B’ match against Furness, several local reps hit the buffers in both games.

The approaching Bank Holiday is always a busy time for local bowlers and action begins on Friday night with preliminaries in the Yorkshire ABA Merit at a venue yet to be announced. The lucky qualifiers will the compete in the ABA Finals at Cleckheaton Sports on Monday.

The Skipton Sunday Doubles are scheduled for Sunday in the Skipton area but no details of this have come to light as yet.

On the same day, the Yorkshire Parks hold their annual Inter-City event, this time in the Aire-Wharfe area and once again, things have not been kind to the local team from Hebden Bridge who have been paired with the hosts, Sheffield and Bradford. They begin against the Aire-Wharfe at the Shipley Club from 10am and then travel to other venues depending on the results.