SKIPTON Ladies had a memorable day in the sun in the Yorkshire ABA’s Ladies Inter-District held in Bradford.

The competition was played in hot conditions on fast and tricky greens and the local hopes did well to reach the final itself before bitter disappointment in the last match.

They began at West Park in two qualifying matches with a great victory over last year’s runners-up and hosts Bradford winning by almost 50 points and having only two losers.

They were indebted to big wins by Claire Russell (21-1), Cath Rushton and Joanne Ellis to make a good start to qualifying based on aggregate. Bradford then beat West Riding to put the cat among the pigeons.

Skipton then met the West Riding and made a dreadful start with three defeats to decide the match early on but rallied to share the winners and finally qualify by two points only in a nail-biter.

They then moved to Baildon and comfortably beat Castleford in the semis with a 30-point margin and seven good winners.

The final was at Eccleshill where the exhausted squad faced favourites and holders Huddersfield.

They produced a great effort with six winners out of 10 but with two poor results, the game was in the balance to the end and in truth the local should have won but went down by five points only. Winners in the final were Cath Rushton, Mary Hemsley, Muriel Baker and an unbeaten Claire Russell, Joanne Ellis and Viv Abell.

Margaret Slater rolled back the years again with three wins out of three but once again it was not to be.

Meanwhile, the Skipton Veterans' Handicap was completed in similar conditions at SPF where a fast and tricky surface made things difficult.

The deserved winner was Mick Duke, of Settle, who narrowly defeated Alden Phillips, of Steeton, 21-19. Losing in the semi-finals were Trevor Hargreaves and David Hemsley, while also in the money were Stan Bargh, Mick Demain, Derek Seed and Warren Burnett. The sponsor was on hand to present the prizes.

The veterans are back in action on Friday at Gargrave against high-flying Halifax in the Inter-District event but no details of away venue as yet, 1.30pm start.

There weren’t many locals in action in recent Federation District games but Barry Turnbull recorded a narrow victory for the Aire-Wharfe Federation A team against Rochdale in a close match.

The Aire Wharfe’s Rycroft Trophy is at Broughton Road on Sunday from 9.30am.

Yorkshire’s third qualifying match in the County Championship is at Whitkirk on Sunday at 2pm against old rivals South Yorkshire.

The Hyman Morris Trophy is also in the Skipton area on Sunday, draw and venues yet to be announced.