The Clarkson Cup qualifying round took place last week with a slightly changed format, as the losers will go into a supplementary competition for the Ambulance Cup.

Crosshills A produced a good performance with ten winners against Colne Cricket Club to win 210-145.

Skipton League Division One leaders Cononley A gave Whinfield B 105 start, but it proved to be no problem, as the Third Division’s top team could only muster 73 points.

Keighley A were pushed all the way by Oakworth going through 199-192, Keighley B just failed to turn over Silsden PF A as they went down by six points 218-212.

Third Division Addingham A did get the better of Second Division side Silsden PF B 254-245, Broughton Road A went through without having to bowl as Sutton B withdrew due to lack of players.

To get the Clarkson Cup down to 16 teams there will be a preliminary round match on Tuesday, June 3, when Crosshills B (70) will take on Gargrave B (85).

There will be no preliminary round in the Supplementary Cup due to Sutton B withdrawing. The draw for the Clarkson Cup and Supplementary Cup First Rounds to be played on Thursday 12th June is as follows:

Clarkson Cup, First Round (Thursday, June 12): Silsden 20 v Addingham A 95; Gargrave A 45 v Colne Legion B 70; Winner preliminary match v Crosshills A (scr); Craven A 25 v Broughton Road A 50; Oxenhope 40 v Lund Park A 50; Cononley A scr v Cononley B 65

Keighley A 10 v Silsden PF A 35; Devonshire A 20 v Settle A 55.

Supplementary Cup, First Round (Thursday, June 12): Steeton A 60 v Rolls Royce 70; Devonshire B 60 v Whinfield A 70; Oakworth 60 v Steeton B 110; Lund Park B 85 v Whinfield B 105; Silsden P F B 70 v Colne Cr Club 30; Grassington 75 v Broughton Road B 80; Keighley B 60 v Craven B 80; Colne Legion A 40 v Sutton A 40;

Cononley A kept up their excellent home form with a 12-0 win over Broughton Road

in the only round of matches played in the Skipton League Walker Foster Division One this week.

It took them to 87 points, seven ahead of Silsden who won 7-5 at home to Devon A.

Crosshills A produced a good result winning 9-3 at Gargrave A to keep their grip on third place.

Keighley A won 11-1 at home to Lund Park A and Oakworth leapt up two places at the foot of the table with an 11-1 home win over Keighley B, which leaves Lund Park at the foot of the table.

Colne Legion A also put a Broughton Road side to the sword with a 12-0 away victory over the Roaders’ B team, to retain the leadership of the Andrew Town Division Two.

Rolls Royce have the same number of points as Legion after playing two games and winning both at Grassington 8-4 and at Whinfield A 7-5.

Devon B stay third after an 8-4 home win over Craven B while Steeton A jumped up to fourth with two good wins at home to Cononley B 9-3 and away at Lund Park B 10-2.

In the Skipton Building Society Division Three, Whinfield B beat second-placed Steeton B 7-3 to open a seven-point lead over their opponents who have a game in hand.

Addingham A remain joint second after losing 7-3 at Steeton C, Settle B won 8-2 at Addingham B to close on the second-placed teams.

One of Skipton and District’s top bowlers died last week. George Kettlewell, 89, played for Addingham and Ilkley, but will be best known for his playing days at Skipton Devonshire, when the club thrived on the local bowling.

Skipton Devonshire were a top side for many years with George, Ken Johnson, Brian Lund and many other top players, all three played for Yorkshire with George possibly surpassing 100 games for the county side.

Individually George won the Skipton and District Merit five times with his first success in 1953 and his last coming in 1982.

He won many league doubles titles with his team mate and Addingham friend Allan Ellis, he also won with his son Headley.

Like a lot of good bowlers George was a perfectionist and one little memory was, when a Devon player came off the green at Addingham, chuffed with winning a Clarkson cup match 21-3, George had a word in his ear and told him he should have beaten that bloke 21-1. Players of his like are few and far between, he will be missed by his family and many people in the bowling fraternity.

There is a lot more to bowling than just playing, the grounds require lots of attention to keep them up to standard.

With this in mind Crosshills Bowling Club organised a seminar for green keepers, with Amenity Land Services and Gibson Garden Machinery putting on a good show of equipment and discussion on disease prevention.

Quite a few local clubs attended but there could have been more support, with councils looking to pull away from keeping greens in their care.

The Yorkshire Merit Qualifying round will take place tomorrow evening at 6.30pm at Broughton Road and Devon, there will be two qualifiers one from each green. The draw for greens is as follows:

Broughton Road: P Dowgill, P Haworth, Martyn Cox, P Clark, P Drinkall, R Ellis, G Reay, Mick Cox, C Wilson.

Devonshire: D Seed, I Bernard, D Scott, N Breadley, D Leeming, P Hepworth, C Smith, S Longley, R Hargreaves.

The Wetherspoon Spring Doubles will take place at Sutton Bowling Club this Sunday, May 25, start 1.30pm, there will be no qualifying round. There are still places available if any pairs would like to join ring Peter Haworth 01756 790902.

The Whitakers League Handicap qualifying round will take place on Tuesday, May 27 start 6.45pm, four qualifiers from each green go forward to the final on Sunday, June 8.

The draw for greens is as follows:

Silsden Playing Fields: J Calvert, B Turnbull, S MacDonald, J Barrett, P Shaw, M Claxton, I Bernard, K Burnett, C Taylor, A Keighley, Mick Cox, P Drinkall, A Ripley, C Wilson, T Hargreaves, D Leeming, D Town, P Haworth, K Moore, W Hardwick, P Deighton.

Steeton B C: A Hughes, M Duke, C Rushton, Martyn Cox, P Hepworth, N Breadley, D Jacques, G Reay, D Seed, M Simpson, P Myers, P Clark, R Baker, D Metcalfe, A Pennington, M Hall, C Smith, S Longley, G Perry, A Byrnes, D Hemsley.

The Skipton Veterans team recorded another good 34-22 win against Leeds due largely to an excellent win by the away team playing at Harehills by 21-7.

There were top performances by Bill Hardwick following his good win against West Riding he did even better by winning 21-6 with also good wins by C Taylor 21-7 B Turnbull 21-9, J Parkin 21-12 and T Hargreaves 21-16 with no bad losers.

The home team lost 15-13 at Sutton despite having four winners led by a good victory for B. Gore 21-11 and other wins for A Ripley 21-13, D Seed 21-17 and D Helmsley 21-20.

The next match will be against Wakefield on Friday, May 30 at 1.30pm, the home leg will be played at Silsden PF.