HESWALL Royal British Legion's Dave McDermott on Sunday won the Spring Waterloo Tournament - one of the most prestigious bowling events in the country.

Among the 32 qualifiers who had already had to win four times to reach this stage were two local players, Mathew Gilmore (Higher Tranmere) and McDermott, who reach the final by overcoming Kendal's Ian Nicolson 21-12 in the quarter-final and then Richie Goddard (Shrewsbury) 21-13 in the semi.

He won the final 21-12, beating Grant Soller, of Macclesfield. It was Dave's second appearance in this final and his win is a tremendous achievement. Well done.

In last weekend's Birkenhead and District Senior Merit Tournament, John Ellis beat Chris Eccles 21-16 in the final. Ellis beat Nick Burridge in his semi final with Eccles accounting for Chris Halsey in the other semi. All four of these players will go forward to represent Birkenhead and District in the British Parks Senior Merit later this season.

On Saturday, the Wirral Association Merit Tournament took place at the Albany green and was won by Gladstone's John Finch, who beat his brother Ritchie, also from Gladstone, in the final.

John beat clubmate Nick Burridge in the quarter-final in an outstanding game of bowls and had a more comfortable win in the semi-final against Peter Holian (Cammell Lairds). Richard Finch had close games in both the quarter-final and the semi, beating Jamie Smith (Cammell Laird) 21-20 before battling to oust clubmate John Roberts 21-19.

The final see-sawed one way and another with Ritchie taking an early lead only for John to recover and eventually win 21-17.

RESULTS: Quarter-finals: R. Finch 21, J. Smith 20; J. Roberts 21, R. Preston 13; J. Finch 21, N. Burridge 17; P. Holian 21, M. Bolton 11.Semi-finals: R. Finch 21, Roberts 19; J. Finch 21, P. Holian 4.Final: J. Finch 21, R. Finch 17.