Bridgwater and Hadley upset the odds in cup

Castlefields, two-in-row winners of the 10-a-side bowls knockout, were beaten by Hadley USC by just three shots at Childs Ercall while North Shropshire big guns Woore lost to local rivals Bridgewater in an even tighter affair.

In fact their tie at Nantwich Park Road finished tied on aggregate and number of winners – so it was Chris Nicholson’s 21-9 win for Bridgewater that took them to next month’s final on the best winner of the match rule.

Skipper Matt Blackhurst said: “We were short handed and knew we needed to get some momentum, so winning three out of four games in the front helped and it was Chris’s card that ultimately won us the game.

“After the draw I always felt we might just have enough, but never expected it to be a tense finish like that. We’re really look forward to the final (on August 3).”

Mid Shropshire title chasers Hadley coped with two bad cards as Nick Mullinder and Dave Price both won 21-12 in their upset win.

Captain Nick Wyer said: “It was a very tough game which swayed both ways during the night.

“It was a few very good performance from us and we also had two or three who battled well from losing positions to get over the line.”