THE Wirral Merit Tournament was played on Sunday and at last it was possible to play bowls in sunny summer conditions.

On a very fast Port Sunlight Village and Works green Gladstone's Nick Burridge showed he is the master of these conditions when he dominated his semi final and final matches to take the first prize.

After qualifying on the Lever's green he had a very tight (21-20) quarter-final match with Cammell Laird's Jamie Smith and he then defeated Port Sunlight's John Harrison before coming up against New Brighton Quarry Viking's Brian Leonard in the final.

To reach the final Leonard, who qualified on the Port Sunlight green, had had two tight games in the quarters and semis against Peter McGhee of Cammell Lairds and then Lever's James Motley.

In the final Burridge produced some tremendous corner play on this tricky green to dominate the match and he took a deserved victory.

Results: Quarter-finals: N Burridge (Gladstone) 21, J Smith (Cammell Lairds) 20; J Harrison (Port Sunlight V&W) 21, R Anderson (Albany) 15; B Leonard (New Brighton Quarry Vikings) 21, P McGhee (Cammell Lairds) 18; J Motley (Levers) 21, G McAdam (Levers) 19.

Semi-final: Burridge 21, Harrison 10; Leonard 21, Motley 19.

Final: Burridge 21, Leonard 08.

The day before this the final stages of the Merseyside Merit were played on the green at Aigburth People's Hall in Liverpool.

The winner was Terry Glover who plays for New Brighton Quarry Vikings; in the final he beat Heswall RBL's Dave McDermott.

To reach the final Glover had beaten Kings 2000 John Hignett Jnr while McDermott had a very narrow victory over Tixall's Antony O'Neill.

The final of the last of the three Wallasey Association's League Cups, the Harold Jones Cup, was played on the Thursday between Manor Road and Hoylake Central.

After a really sporting contest, played in challenging conditions on the very good Harrison Park green, Manor Road took the trophy with a 16 point margin.

Manor Road had got off to a great start with two single figure wins for their number one and two players, Peter McGregor (21-07) and Alf Pennington (21-08) and though the Hoylake team had five winners of their own, their best was Chris Hegg who won 21-11, they could never quite catch up and Manor Road were very happy to receive the trophy.

The Wallasey Association's Parks Merit Competition will be on the evening of Wednesday, June 5.

Entry fee is £5 and the closing date for entries is Saturday June 1.

The last four qualify for the National Finals on August 11 which are being held in Birkenhead.

The Birkenhead and District's Parks Merit will be held at Port Sunlight on Sunday, June 9.

Registration at 10.15am with a start/scratch at 10.30am.

The last eight will qualify for the National Finals on August. 11 The competition is open to all bowlers registered in the Birkenhead League and full details can be found on the Bowls Forum.

The final stages of the Heswall RBL singles Tournament, the last sixteen, will be taking place on Saturday, June 1, with play getting underway at 4.30pm.