THE Hargreaves Ltd Skipton and District League Merit proved to be a family affair with Richard Hargreaves beating his father Trevor to lift the title.

The Broughton Road green was in good order though the rain had made conditions slightly easier for the 24 entries.

The preliminary round saw a few good bowlers fall by the wayside, including former winner David Jacques went out to Ryan Tiler, while three Gargrave entries Mick Cox, Keith Moore and Skipton League president Alister Keighley also bowed out.

Richard Hargreaves was in form as he beat Derek Seed 21-11, while Seed’s team mate David Leeming came back well to win 21-20 against Phil Anderson.

The last-16 matches saw Ryan Tiler continue his good form, as he defeated another past winner in Peter Clark.

Tiler got a terrific start leading and was soon lading 12-0. Clark came back but had too much to do as Tiler won 21-12.

Last year’s winner Andrew Tate had a tough match, as Settle’s Mick Duke made him pull out all the stops to go through 21-18.

Richard Hargreaves proved to be too good for Mick Demain going through 21-8. David Leeming had yet another long game just getting the better of David Hemsley 21-18.

Sponsor Trevor Hargreaves always goes well when he is looking to retrieve, so William Bestwick put up a good performance to get 13 before going out.

Into the quarter-finals, Trevor Hargreaves was now picking up momentum as he brushed secretary Peter Haworth aside 21-7.

His son Richard met Crossroads team-mate Tiler in what proved to be a quality match with both players on form.

At 17-17 it was Hargreaves who put in the best final ends to win 21-17. Andrew Tate was also upping his game as he got the better of Gargrave’s last survivor Chris Pearce 21-13.

Sutton’s Craig Smith had been going along nicely, but met his match in the quarters as David Leeming was too strong going through 21-12.

The semi-finals saw Leeming take on Trevor Hargreaves who quickly picked up the pace of the green to lead 9-2.

Leeming picked up the jack to get to 9-8 down. Hargreaves then went for a mark that had served him well and again it proved a match winner as he galloped away to a 21-12 victory. The other semi-final proved to be a quality match as Tate and Richard Hargreaves could not be separated throughout the match.

Tate got the better start to lead 9-4, but was soon hauled back by Hargreaves to level the match 10-10 after 16 ends.

Tate again edged in front 16-12, Hargreaves again levelled at 16-16.

Hargreaves then got to 20 first but Tate levelled. Tate had the jack in hand for the match but Hargreaves had the final say to go through 21-20.

It was father versus son for the title and both had won the merit four times previously.

It was to be a good match, but Richard always held the upper hand although his lead was never comfortable.

Richard was leading 16-8 and looking on track, but showed real determination to battle on. It needed a really good wood from Richard to stop Trevor getting too close and it made all the difference as Richard got the final point needed to take the match 21-17.

Former president Roy Sanderson presented the Albert Smith Merit Trophy to Richard Hargreaves.