Veteran bowlers fly flag for county in merit finals

Nick Davies, of Meole Brace, and Battlefield’s Ian Foster earned their tickets to the big day at Prees on Wednesday, July 3, by starring in the qualifying session at Telepost.

Davies, skipper of Meole’s Premier League side this year, beat John Clarke (Wrockwardine Wood) 21-14 from 10-8 down to book his place. Foster had to fight even hard to recover from an 8-13 deficit against 2016 Shropshire Veterans Merit winner Tony Roche (Sir John Bayley) to win 21-19 after 27 ends.

“A field of 17 players gathered at Telepost to contest Shropshire’s two guaranteed qualifying places in the British finals of the Jack & Jean Isherwood over 60s individual competition that will be staged at Prees,” said county comps secretary Mike Potter.

“And after four hours of action our duo to carry the hopes for a second Shropshire champion at the finals (Keith Pessall won it in 2021) are Nick Davies and Ian Foster - congratulations and good luck lads.”

A husband and wife bowls duo danced their way to success in the latest North Shropshire association competition.

Steve and Kerry Dance felt right at home as they made off with the Judith Purcell Mixed Doubles trophy at Whitchurch’s District Club. “After a very good day of bowling, Steve and Kerry edged a very close final 21-19 against Carl Hinton and Gaynor Smith, who had played excellently themselves with a number of convincing wins,” said organiser Jack Hazeldine. “Steve and Kerry had encountered some tough opponents who wanted to block the way to the trophy, but the pair had other ideas and played well to dispatch everyone. Saturday saw another great amount of 24 entries and my sincere thanks go to everyone who supports these competitions - North Shropshire bowling is definitely on the up!”

District pair Steve and Kerry beat Malpas Sports big guns Paul Bradley and Donna Bennett 21-15 in the semi-finals while Hinton & Smith were racing past John Stead & Julia Watson 21-4. Next for Hazeldine is the Market Drayton League Merit on Saturday (JUN 1) from 10am at Tilstock, entries on the day before 9.45 or by email at compsecnscgba@outlook.com.