Farmer's late entry proves no Handicap

Peter Farmer added a missing link to his illustrious bowling CV by notching a first County Handicap title – despite arriving expecting to be a spectator.

Farmer's intentions had been limited to watching his two sons – 13-year-old James and 11-year-old Matthew – in action in the annual Bank Holiday competition at Severnside in Shrewsbury.

But the four times Shropshire Star Merit champion left having bagged another county title after seeing off 120 rivals on a gruelling day of action which lasted 11 hours before Farmer sealed a final victory over Hadley USC's Phil King at 9.40pm.

"It was strange because I had no intention of playing when we arrived," said the St Georges and Shropshire ace, whose two sons were both eliminated from the competition in the first round.

"James and Matthew have recently joined Con Club in the Market Drayton League so it was just a chance for them to have another game.

"I've been struggling a bit early on in the season but I decided to enter and went on to win it.

"I think I've lost in the final three times so to actually win it was very pleasing."

And it wasn't an easy run for Farmer, who was forced to overcome Chester Road ace Charlie Weaver 21-18 in what was a tight second round battle.

And team-mates Tony Rhodes – who led Farmer 18-12 – and Ian Gaut awaited in the quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively.

Farmer eventually got past Gaut 21-10, while King defeated Burway's Julian Partridge 21-12 to secure his own final berth.

Crucially, Farmer used his favoured corner mark to go on an unanswered run from 5-4 to 13-4.

Despite a small recovery by King on his 'edge' mark to pull back to trail 16-10, it was not long before Farmer, again in the corners thought he'd done enough to win the game.

But his celebrations were cut short when he was told by county competition secretary, John Coxill, that he needed to score an extra handicap chalk.

King immediately took advantage of the miscalculation and shortened the length across the centre of the green and made a run of four ends fighting back to make the score 20-16 in Farmer's favour.

But the postman held his nerve and stamped his class to deliver another county success.

By JAMES GARRISON