Proud day despite an official slip-up
Not even a bizarre case of mistaken identity could take the smiles off the faces of the North Shropshire army at the British Ladies Association’s presentation lunch.
They were the first recipients of the new President’s Cup at the function at Winnington Park in Northwich on Sunday – even if national officials seemed not to know it!
Chris Sayers, chair of the North Shropshire Ladies association, explained: “The only thing that put a damper on things was that they announced the winners as Cheshire, writes Malcolm Fletcher.
“And to make things worse, not only did they announce that, but they had also engraved the trophy wrong as well.
“It wasn’t quite as bad as the Oscars that went wrong, but it did spoil our moment.
“Having said that, we still had a good day and are very proud to be the first recipients of this newly-formed competition.”
The President’s Cup was launched in 2017 as the second tier of the county championship, and North Shropshire won it thanks to victories over Cheshire, South Staffordshire and Merseyside.
New North Shropshire president Janice Broad declared: “Well done everyone – let’s hope for similar next year.”
That’s when they will return to the main 16-strong championship with group matches with Cumbria, Staffordshire and Cheshire.
It was back to winning ways with a vengeance for Shrewsbury Indoor Bowls Club when they took on Bromsgrove.
Just seven days after losing the first match of their winter friendly series at Tamworth, they bounced back with a strong second half showing.
Shrewsbury won the five rinks of four players encounter at Bromsgrove by 12 shots on Saturday, much to the delight of vice-captain Cynthia Hedley.
“In a very competitive match, all five rinks showed level scores during the first half of the game,” she said.
“However, as the determined Shrewsbury team became accustomed to the fast green, their score pulled away from the home team.
“And in their last away game before Christmas, they succeeded in returning to winning ways with a creditable victory of 92-80, winning four of the five rinks played, the best being Joe Pope, Martin Wear and Lorna Williams with skip Rose Higginson.
“This was Shrewsbury’s sixth win out of the seven matches played so far this season and this coming Sunday the club are at home, against West Midlands Police (2pm), visitors welcome.”
