Although Skipton Veterans defeated Castleford 39-17, there were two contrasting legs that secured a welcome victory.

Away at Methley, the team had only one loser as good wins by a recalled Peter Deighton and David Hemsley secured a good win. However, in the home leg at Sutton, the visitors arrived with two players missing after they got lost in transit up at Cowling Head. In the six matches played, Skipton lost four of them.

Two victories by Derek Seed and Len Buxton saved the day as did the two recorded walkovers. The next match is against reigning champions Bradford on June 3, when they must find improvement from somewhere.

In recent representative games, Robbie Ellis won 21-3 on his debut for the Yorkshire Parks in the away leg against Cheshire, which helped secure an easy win, while in the Veterans County Parks match, Yorkshire narrowly defeated old rivals South Yorkshire, with good home wins by Barry Turnbull, Mick Bastow and Hemsley again in the home leg at Rufford Park. Mick Skwarek won his match in the away side at Meersbrook BC.

Sadly, the Worth Valley’s Ogden Handicap, scheduled for Keighley BC last week-end, was cancelled due to lack of entries - a continuing worrying trend in local bowling. Let us hope for better support in the Leading Ladies Mixed Pairs at Lund Park on June 12.

The bank holiday period sees a feast of bowling and that begins tonight in the local preliminaries for the Yorkshire ABA’s Merit at Lund Park (6.45pm).

Sixteen locals go to post playing for two places on both greens and the winning pair go through to the Yorkshire Finals at Hove Edge WMC on Monday (11am).

Tomorrow sees the Worth Valley Over-60s back in action at Elland C&BC in the Federation League where, in their second visit, they meet both Halifax B and Doncaster, beginning at 10.45am. They will be hoping for a better show after their last visit.

Tomorrow night sees early rounds in the Yorkshire Park’s Brotherton and Wood Cups where Cross Roads A and B face tough matches against Pudsey BC, at West Bradford, and Asa Briggs A, at Royd House, respectively.

The Shipley Classic continues on the same night, commencing at 6.30pm.

The popular annual Yorkshire Parks Inter-City event is on Sunday in the Barkston Ash area. Cross Roads will supply most of the Hebden Royd team and they begin their group matches against the locals at Rothwell BC at around 10am.

Things get tougher when they play Sheffield at Rothwell Park next and finish off against the Heavy Woollen area at Garforth Recreation. It will need a massive effort to reach the finals at Thorner in the early evening.