Rivals face off in North Shropshire Winter Bowls
Bowls clubmates became final rivals as North Shropshire Parks’ winter series became a movable feast for round 18.
A late change in venue took it to Newport for a rare one-day knockout, which was followed by more than 40 bowlers contesting the more usual round robin only session in the afternoon.
And the morning action led to an all-Hanmer final with 2016 British Junior Merit winner Andy Armstrong taking the biggest slice of the prize money thanks to a 13-6 victory over reigning County Merit champion Jack Hewitt.
Series organiser Jamie Brookes explained the change in venue, saying: “There was a Covid outbreak at the District Club, leading to a postponement of last week’s winter league fixtures – which will now be played at the end of the campaign.
“Due to the outbreak, we moved round 18 of the winter series and played it at Newport instead, where we had 27 entrants in the ‘all dayer’ and 43 in the weekly round robin points session that started at 2pm.”
Armstrong, who finished the curtailed 2021 Premier League season strongly, beat Wem USC legend Derek Wright 13-10 in his semi-final while Hewitt – now recovered from a broken finger - was beating Paul Holt 13-6.
The losing quarter-finalists were Chris Elsbury, Ben Parkes, Jock Timlett and Dave Hanson – and Elsbury and Parkes recovered to win their round robin groups later.
Also topping their group tables were Elaine Jones, Cedric Bancroft, Steve Hamman, Roger Candlin, Chris Makin, David Cunningham, Des Conneely and Gary Whitehall.
Round 19 on Sunday is a round robin only promotion at the District in Whitchurch with 13-up sessions starting at 9am and 1pm, entry costing £5.
Series finals day is set for Sunday, April 10, but before then the North Shropshire Parks association’s AGM is set for Wednesday, March 23.
