THE weather forecast for Sunday indicated conditions during the morning would be far from the ideal for playing bowls: Strong winds and persistent rain were predicted.

But the 26 players who were brave enough to venture out found things were not as bad as they might have expected and the weekly tournament was able to go ahead with no problem.

At the end of the morning's play Tixall's Matthew Gilmore must have been particularly glad he came along as he took the top prize beating his team mate, Mick Andrews, in the final.

This was Gilmore's first appearance for some time but he showed little sign of 'rustiness' as he fairly comfortably defeated Upton Victory Hall's Tony Cavanagh in the quarter finals, however the semi final was a different matter and he had to call upon all his experience to come back from 17-11 down against the in-form Dougie Briscoe of Cammell Lairds finally scraping through with a 21-20 victory.

Meanwhile Andrews had an excellent 21-12 win over last week's winner Heswall's John Lloyd in the quarters before beating Joe Edwards, showing a return to form, in the semis.

Gilmore raced into an early lead in the final and though Andrews briefly fought back Gilmore held on to take a 21-17 win.

Results:

Quarter-finals: M Gilmore (Tixall) 21, T Cavanagh (Upton Victory Hall) 15; D Briscoe (Cammell Laird) 21, J Mannion (Port Sunlight Village and Works) 08; M Andrews (Tixall) 21, J Lloyd (Heswall RBL) 12; J Edwards (Levers) 21, T Lowndes (Chester) 20.

Semi-finals: Gilmore 21, Briscoe 20; Andrews 21, Edwards 12.

Final: Gilmore 21, Andrews 17.