The Weston Park Trophy has become one of the go to events in British Crown Green bowling as the tournament is run in memory of Paul Sykes.
A keen bowler Paul died in 2016 at the age of 45. He was cared for by the Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity in Sheffield. The Sykes family have raised thousands of pounds over the last six years for the hospital.
Paul’s wife Yeolande and son Liam plus other family members have run the competition out of their local club in Brockholes. This year’s tournament is to be the biggest one yet with 64 competitors taking part across two weekends.
Having taken place at the end of the bowling season last year, the tournament is set to return to its usual spot in April.
Bowlers will take part in four qualifying sessions over the weekend of April 9 and 10, there will be 16 bowlers per session with four from each group qualifying for the final night which will take place on Saturday April 30.
Every blower will pay a £25 entrance fee, however once they have won two games they are guaranteed to take home £75.
The prize money has been increased this year due to a fantastic sponsor making £1,000 available for the winner. Central Recycling Yorkshire Ltd, based in Doncaster, are sponsoring the competition.
On this year’s tournament Yeolande said: “This year we are going bigger than ever and we are so pleased that the competition is getting plenty of attention as we are raising funds for an amazing cause. It’s taking a lot of organising but it’s just brilliant how it’s getting bigger every time.
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“We have lots of well known bowlers coming to take part which shows you how prestigious it has become. I want to say a huge thank you to our main sponsor. They really are fantastic and deserve praise for putting up a lot of money.”
The CEO of Central Recycling Yorkshire, Will Brookes, added: “When I heard Liam’s story about his dad and that he was looking for sponsorship for this event, I jumped at the chance to help raise money for Weston Park Hospital.
“After the amazing work they do, and have done recently for a close friend of mine, nothing would please me more than to give a hand contributing to that.”
On the names taking part in the event, Yeolande said: “This amount of prize money has made our competition one of the biggest in the country, which has helped us attract entries from far and wide including Shrewsbury, Scarborough and Blackpool as well as many local bowlers.
“Most of the entries are county bowlers with some of them being individual county and national champions, bowlers like Callum Wraight (Shrewsbury), Darren Plenderleith (Tamworth), Lee Johnstone (Warrington) and Matt Gilmore (Wirral) to name just a few.
“There are local well known successful bowlers such as Chris Mordue and his son Josh, Jack Dyson, Craig Gant, Gareth Coates and Scott Fisher taking part too.
“As well as those we also have four of the previous five winners of the trophy taking part, Josh Brown (2017), Wayne Moseley (2018), Mark Regan (2019) and current holder James Davison (2021).”
Last year James Davidson lifted the trophy and picked up a cool £500 in the process but with the prize money doubled this year you can expect an even more fierce competition to take place.
The breakdown of the prize money is as follows.
Winner – £1,000
Runner up – £600
Semi-final – £300
Quarter-final – £150
Last 16 – £75
Good luck to everyone taking part.
