SKIPTON Ladies reached the final of the Yorkshire ABA’s Women’s Inter-City event once again.

But it was a second-consecutive defeat to Huddersfield at Castleford Town BC that spoilt the day after going down by just 12 points and sharing the winners.

The early rounds were held at Garforth Rec on a round robin basis where Skipton easily beat a poor Harrogate side in game one.

The East Coast also beat Harrogate with ease so it was a final decider to see who progressed and, although the locals made a good start through a recalled Sue Finnie, things began to go downhill and became too close for comfort.

It ended all-square but Skipton progressed on the most winners rule to the semi-final.

They then played home side Castleford for a place in the final and produced their best game of the day with a comfortable win to progress to the final.

They put up a brave display and recorded winners in Liz Bland, Christine Hasselby, Cath Rushton, the consistent Carol Uttley and Kath Whitaker, who was undefeated, all day, but it was not to be.

The team can now concentrate on the league where they trail Hove Edge by some way but have several games in hand due to postponements and teams withdrawing.

The Skipton Vets also met Huddersfield in the continuing Yorkshire ABA’s Vets Inter-District and just went down 30-26 after two brave efforts.

In the home leg at Settle they recorded five winners out of eight but with one poor score, they went down by just four points while at Thongsbridge, they shared the winners but lost narrowly again by six points. Next game against old rivals Bradford is on July 26.

They play in the annual Hickson Trophy before then on July 12 in South Yorkshire. Details to be announced.

The Yorkshire Parks Brotherton Cup and Wood Cup Finals are on Sunday in the Bradford area where local hopes Cross Roads meet Guiseley in the last eight at Clayton commencing at 10am. If successful, and get through the next game, they play the final at Salts in mid-afternoon.

Meanwhile, David Jacques, of Keighley BC, showed a little bit better form of late when he won the Skipton Vets Handicap at Colne CC by defeating David Hemsley of Oxenhope 21-9 in a game where neither player produced what they are really capable of on a good green.

It was his second success in the competition. Losing in the semis were Neill Parker and Keith Moore while also in the money were Seth Naylor, Alan Barber, Brian Gore and Alistair Keighley.

There was some entertaining bowling in the Valley Trebles at Keighley BC but with some convincing victories in both the main event and the Supplementary competitions.

In the Trebles final, Cross Roads trio of Trevor Hargreaves, Stan Walsh and Craig Wilkins were a little lucky to defeat Kevin Burnett and Oliver and Warren Burnett, winning 8-6.

In the Supplementary, there was a bigger margin of victory for Mick Demain, Rob Ellis and Jonathan Brown, of Craven, who beat John Callanan, Stuart Hall and Stephen Lloyd 15-6.