Shrewsbury Town sponsor Morris is an England racketball master

Chris Morris works for the family-run property company which appears on Salop’s home shirt, but he has a hidden passion for racketball.

And the 53-year-old was part of a four-strong team which has just won the Masters Racketball Home Internationals.

The tournament, held in Glasgow over two days, saw the men’s over-50s squad convincingly beat their opponents from Scotland, Jersey and Wales to finish as champions.

And Morris was the only member of the squad not to drop a match throughout the tournament and he was delighted.

“It was a big attendance as the over-40s, 50s, 60s and 70s were all there,” he said. “And we were really chuffed to come away with the victory.

“We knew going into the final day that if we won it would be our name on the trophy but if Wales had beaten us then they would have won the overall tournament because of the points they had gathered together.”

Racketball is a sport similar to squash, in fact, apart from the size of the ball and a different shaped racket – it is exactly the same.

And Shropshire is a hotbed for the sport with six out of the men’s UK top 20 coming from the county.

Morris and fellow team-mates for the tournament Jason Russell and Chris Wase make three out of the top five UK men’s racketball players – and all three of them play at Shrewsbury Squash & Rugby Club.

Away from racketball, Morris is a director at Morris & Company who sponsor Shrewsbury Town.

The company has a lot of history attached to it, something Salop chairman Roland Wycherley was very aware of when the deal was announced back in May 2023.

He said: “We are delighted to have Morris Property as our front-of-shirt sponsors for our new home kit.

“The Morris company was formed way back in 1869 – with the football club founded 17 years later in 1886.

“We are two Shrewsbury institutions that have shown we know how to grow, how to change and how to adapt in order to be successful.”

And while Morris himself is not a huge follower of football, he says the relationship the company and the club, has seen him take a keen interest in how they are getting on.

He said: “While I’m a racketball fan rather than a football fan per se – I have really enjoyed following Town over the past two seasons of our sponsorship, so I count myself as a fledgling fan.

“As sponsors, we follow how Town do and we are always keen for them to do well.

“There is a long link with Shrewsbury Town through my grandfather, he played one match for Shrewsbury as he was called up from the amateurs – that was back in 1922.

“Wherever we develop we always invest locally, that is part of our we run our family business.

“Whether that be via initiatives with local schools but in this instance it was too good of an opportunity to miss really.”