Qualifying contest is proving to be very popular

Promoter Rob Burroughs reports that half of the 256 places at the Shrewsbury bowls club have been taken, the first qualifying session taking place on March 16 and a £1,000 first prize up for grabs on the finals day of April 7.

He’s made slight tweaks to timings with qualifying sessions starting earlier at 10am and 2pm, players allowed to pick which of the two greens they would like to try and qualify on and practice time reduced to 20 minutes.

“The main reason for moving it earlier is because I’m still going to be running a second competition alongside the Meole,” explained Burroughs.

“This will not be at Hadley USC though, given the difficulties I had last year with the green – it will be at Edgmond, which has been a consistent winner of the best kept green competition over the last few years.

“So I’m hoping it’s a green that players will enjoy playing on – and it’s filling fast!

“However, as I’m running that one myself, I’m planning on doing four evening sessions at Edgmond after Meole to allow 64 bowlers to double up with that competition.”

The last 22 winners of the Meole Open have qualified for the Champion of Champions and the 2024 entry details are:

Qualifiers on Saturday-Sunday, March 16-17 and 23-24 (at 10am and 2pm after 20 minute practice session, nominate which green to play on), with finals day Sunday 7th April, 11.30am start. Three games to qualify, no home bowlers, with prizes for best senior citizen, woman and junior. Entry £20, limited to first 256, book via 07901-229623 – non payers by January 31 may be replaced by a reserve.

Oswestry League club Criftins are the latest to sign up to the Bandit Bowls bandwagon.

The Dudleston Heath-based club (SY12 9LE) is the venue tomorrow for the second of the winter one-day competitions run by promoter Jamie Brookes and his team.

And he’s hoping to build on an entry figure of 26 for the first ‘one-dayer’ held last Saturday at Wem USC.

Bowlers can enter on the day tomorrow, registering ahead of a 9am start to the 13-up round robin games that lead to knockout ties, entries costing £12 with £5 to go into the prize fund to be paid out on the day and £1 to the host club.

Brookes faces another hectic weekend with round three of the winter series – with round robin group games only – on Sunday at Wem USC.

Entry is £7 and the sessions start at 9am, 12.15pm and 3.30 with Brookes warning: “Due to the fantastic numbers we do need to have entrants there at least 30 minutes before the start time so that we are as efficient as possible. We need games running at the specified start time.”