THE very pleasant weather in Birkenhead Park on Sunday meant another large turnout and at the end of a long morning it was Manor Road's Dave Gilmore who took his first win of this series of tournaments when he beat Lever's Steve Gardner in the final.

In the quarter finals Gilmore had been a little too good for St George’s John Joy and he then had a fairly comfortable victory over Gladstone’s Joe Edwards.

To get to the quarter-finals Gardner had already had one 21-20 win when beating Tixall’s Jamie Fitzpatrick and then, after having a somewhat easier win over Manor Road’s John Pritchard in the quarters, he played Tixall's Mick Andrews in the semi final.

Gardner held his nerve and another 21-20 win took him to the final.

Gardner continued his good form and he had established a 17-10 lead before Gilmore clawed his way back to snatch a well-deserved victory.