THE final session of the prestigious Heswall British Legion Pairs Tournament was played on Sunday afternoon.

Though it was a pity the glorious weather could not have continued through to finals day the rain did not affect the very high standard of play and a good crowd saw some really excellent games.

Two local pairs had reached the semi final stage and they were drawn against each other in one of the matches; the pairing of Matthew Gilmore and Anthony Thompson defeated Paul and Craig Saville 21-10.

In the other semi final Matt Gillies and Jim Derby from Manchester proved to be too good for Phil Boydell and John Hodson from Leigh winning by the same score.

In the final, Gillies and Derby took an 18-10 lead before Gilmore and Thompson fought back to level the scores and it was a shame for the Wirral Pair when they lost by the closest of margins, 21-20.

Results: Semi-finals: M Gillies and J Derby 21, P Boydell and J Hodson 10; M Gilmore and A Thompson 21, P Saville and C Saville 10. Final: Gillies and Derby 21, Gilmore and Thompson 20.

The Wallasey Association's last tournament of the of the year, the Tom Bassnett Pairs, was played on Saturday at Central Park and for the second time in three years it was won by the father and son combination of Colin and Craig Saville who both play for Queens Royal.

In the final they beat the Marine Park pairing of Lorna Foster and Robert Lynch.

In the semi finals The Savilles's showed no respect in beating "the management", Chairman Keith Etches and Secretary Peter Dodd; while Lorna and Robert did well to get the better of Barry Smith and Andy Wainwright.

In the final, despite a brave fight back by the Marine Park Pair, the Saville combination proved to be too strong and they won 21-14.

Results: Semi-finals: L Foster and R Lynch 21, B Smith and A Wainwright 13; C and C Saville 21, P Dodd and K Etches 14. Final: Saville and Saville 21, Foster and Lynch 14.

When your correspondent Bill Atkinson reached the final of the Flyers on Sunday he was hoping to join a select group of player who have won on successive weeks.

Unfortunately Paul Roberts, 'the Welsh Wizard', had other ideas and though Atkinson took an early 13-07 lead some immaculate corner play by Roberts turned the game round and he eventually took the top spot 21-15.

Earlier Roberts had a fairly comfortable win over Jamie Greer before just getting the better of Colin Portis in a really exciting semi final match.

Meanwhile, Atkinson had won through against Tommy Walker and Eddie Dutton.

Results: Semi-finals: W Atkinson 21, E Dutton 10; P Roberts 21, C Portis 19. Final: Roberts 21, Atkinson 15.

The qualifying rounds of the Richard Evans 31 Up Tournament have been taking place during the last two weeks and the final stages will be played on Thursday, October 6, and Friday, October 7, on the green at Cammell Laird's with play getting under way at 6.30pm.

The Bebington Pairs League Season has recently finished and in the first Division Gladstone were fairly convincing winners of Division 1 with the winners of the Bebington A Division Tixall in second place.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Brian Hampson for stepping in during the busy summer season and so ably doing the bowls report in my place.

I hope I can come some way to maintaining his standard.

I thoroughly enjoyed my summer travels up and down the country, by bike and on foot, and I feel very privileged to have had the experience of seeing so much of the country.

THE GLOBE