Whites strike to leave rivals singing the Blues in Shropshire Inter League
There was no sign of a white flag of surrender as the holders of the Shropshire senior inter-league championship suffered a surprise defeat in an all-Premier League final.
A younger White team – ironically playing in yellow shirts – beat the more experienced Blue team, the reigning champions, by 29 shots in the eight-a-side final at Wem USC.
“The White team stormed ahead early on with three winners out of the first four, with Mike Wainwright winning the player-of-the-match award for virtually running out from 11-9 to beat Pete Farmer 21-12,” said a county association spokesman.
Josh Cotton (21-10) and Phil Jones (21-19) kept the Whites on top and, although Chris Worthington and Wayne Rogers established big leads for the Blues in the back four, both ended up losing as the Whites finished with six winners in the Saturday night showdown.
Full final scores – Premier Blue 134, Premier White 163
Peter Farmer 12 Mike Wainwright 21; Darren Wellings 21 Cheryl Caswell 20; Glyn Wellings 10 Josh Cotton 21; Peter Grimston 19 Phil Jones 21.
Ash Wellings 21 Rob Burroughs 17; Chris Worthington 18 Jon Lyttle 21; Kane Beaman 14 Mark Thomas 21; Wayne Rogers 19 Martin Gaut 21.
He’s the tops for his club in the Oswestry League this season – and now Phil Jones is king of the league too!
The Cynwyd bowler capped a fine individual season by winning the Oswestry Merit at Johnstown, inflicting more misery on homester Trevor Roberts in the process.
Jones beat the league’s former competition secretary Roberts 21-17 in the final, the Johnstown man having lost in last year’s Merit final to Llangollen’s Craig Jones and been a beaten semi-finalist in 2019.
Roberts must have thought his fortunes had changed when he beat league legend Dave Edwards 21-13 in the semi-finals while Jones was ending the great run of Angela Howard 2116.
Now the new champion will go back to concentrating on club duties as he aims for a full house of 32 pairs on Sunday for the Cynwyd Open Doubles – entry costs £10 per pair, contact him on 07713 602020 for vacancy details.
Merit quarter-final results – Trevor Roberts 21 Simon Richardson 14; Dave Meyers 9 Dave Edwards 21; Peter Taylor 13 Phil Jones 21; Sharon Roberts 13 Angela Howard 21
