RICHARD Hargreaves mastered a tricky Broughton Road green to win the Skipton and District League JACS Merit Final for the third time in five years.

It took a quite few ends for the eight finalist to get the pace of the quick surface and life was just a bit easier with the jack.

The 2014 winner David Scott had a terrific struggle with Barry Turnbull. Scott was 19-14 down, but came back to level 20-20, only for Turnbull to pull out a 21-20 win.

Hargreaves took an early 7-1 lead against David Hemsley before hiss opponent hit back to edge ahead 11-10. Hargreaves responded by running out a 21-13 winner.

Derek Metcalfe was another to start well and went 8-1 up against Mick Cox. Once he had adapted to the green, Cox hauled himself back into the game at 20-19 down. Metcalfe held his nerve and pulled out the winning wood to take the game 21-19.

David Leeming was always in the lead in his quarter-final with Phil Anderson. He established an early 7-1 and though Anderson got it back to 17-14, he eventually lost 21-15.

Leeming faced Hargreaves in the semi-finals and the match stood at 8-8 after 12 ends. A close contest looked in prospect, but Hargreaves had other ideas. He found the perfect mark and length to run away with the match 21-10.

The other semi-final was just almost an exact replica as Metcalfe and Turnbull found themselves level 8-8 after 12 ends, before Metcalfe ran away with the game to win 21-9.

The final was completely one sided as Hargreaves got on the same mark and Metcalfe could not get in the game, as he ran out a 21-3 winner.

It looks like the Walker Foster Division One title is Cononley A’s unless they have a massive slip up in the last two rounds of fixtures.

Last week saw them pick up two wins, away at Broughton Road A 9-3 and 11-1 at home to Craven A to put them on 227 points. They are five points ahead of Keighley A who recorded 12-0 wins over both Devon B at home and Silsden PF A away.

Cross Hills A slipped into third place after an 8-4 defeat at Devon A and a narrow 7-5 home win over Gargrave A.

The Veterans Handicap will take place tomorrow at Silsden Playing Fields with a 1pm start.

Entries for the Dick Keighley Cup close this Saturday.