THE Birkenhead and District Parks Merit Tournament took place on Sunday, played on the two greens in Port Sunlight.

The winner of the event was Anthony O'Neill of Tixalls who beat Brian Somerville, who also plays for Tixalls, in the final Results: Quarter-finals: J Roberts 21, J Finch 11; A O'Neill 21, J Wilson 14; P Webster 21, G McAdam 15; B Somerville 21, R Marshall 8.

Semi-finals: O'Neill 21, Roberts 11; Somerville 21, Webster 16.

Final: O'Neill 21, Somerville 8.

These eight players will now represent Birkenhead and District in the National Finals which this year are being hosted by the Birkenhead Parks Team.

The Wallasey Parks Merit was played on the previous Wednesday evening, at Harrison Park.

There were a lot of long, close games and consequently the tournament could only be played down to the last four.

It will be finished at a later date but the four semi-finalists; Dave Gilmore, Matthew Gilmore and Jamie Fitzpatrick who all play for West Kirby Victoria and Chris Barton of New Brighton Quarry Vikings, have qualified to represent Wallasey in the National Parks Finals.

On Saturday, the Wirral Veterans Handicap was played on the green at Pensby and after a great day's play the winner was Heswall RBL's Geoff Dewhurst who beat Tom Bentley in the final.

In the semi-final Dewhurst beat last year's winner Tony Cavanagh while Bentley had a good win over Don Jones.

Results: Quarter-finals: T Bentley 21, P Webster 20; D Jones 21, P Smith 15; T Cavanagh 21, J Brandon 13; G Dewhurst 21, A Popham 17.

Semi-finals: Bentley 21, Jones 15; Dewhurst 21, Cavanagh 17.

Final; Dewhurst 21, Bentley 17. The winners of this year's Magazine Charity Handicap were the pairing of Bill Astles and Nobby Clark who beat Gill Smith and Jean Clark in a rather one sided final.

On their way to the final, Astles and Clark beat Linda and Ian Mitchell in the semis while Smith and Clark had won through against C Morrison and R Hardy.

The main winners on the day though was St. John's Hospice which will receive a cheque for over £300.

Results; Semi-finals: W Astles and N Clark 21, I and L Mitchell 15; G Smith and J Clark 21, C Morrison and R Murray 16.

Final: Astles and N Clark 21, Smith and J Clark, 3.

At the Wallasey Association's annual charity match at Manor Road on Sunday, in which two teams of mixed pairs played for the George Gilmore Memorial trophy, more than £600 was raised to help the Wirral Heart Beat Outreach Fire Station Gyms.

In the Cheshire Association's Brunner Cup matches played on Saturday, two Wirral teams fought through to the quarter-finals to be played on June 22.

The successful teams were Tixalls, who defeated Frodsham Red Lion and will next play Houldsworth WMC, and Gladstone who were too good for Parkside BC and they will now play Poynton Sports.

Next Sunday, Wirral's two parks teams play their next Parks County games; Birkenhead and District probably have the easier tie taking on Warwickshire and a win should virtually ensure their progress in this year’s series of games.

The home game is being played on the Port Sunlight Village and Works green.

Wallasey had a difficult match last time and will be hoping that their next game against Central Lancashire will be more successful; their home game is being played on West Kirby Victoria's green in Ashton Park.

The matches get under way at 2.30pm and both teams would welcome some support.