Callum Wraight is the best of British

Callum Wraight is the best of British.

The Shrewsbury bowler joined the elite at the very top of the game by winning the £4,020 Padders feelgoodfeet British Merit title on Saturday at the Northern Club in Crosby, near Liverpool.

He ended Shropshire's 22-year wait for another All England champion by beating Cheshire star Glynn Cookson in a close final a little after 6pm.

The Castlefields 22-year-old defeated Cookson 21-19 to emulate the feat of the late Alan 'Wishy' Dodd at Stockingford, near Nuneaton, in 1987.

But that was his one real scare on a day when Wraight proved his undoubted class with a display that will live long in the memories of the many Shropshire bowls lovers on hand to see it.

While the county's four other qualifiers all disappointingly fell at the first hurdle, Wraight was at his imperious best to beat 63 other players to the £1,000 first prize.

He hammered Yorkshire star Paul Sigsworth 21-5 in the quarter-finals and then wasted little time in seeing off Lancashire Merit winner Nicky Shaw 21-6 in the semi-finals.

Cookson proved a tougher cookie in the final, but nobody could stop Callum becoming the new king of the sport.

Strangely the bookmaker, who is based in Mount Pleasant, has never won the Shropshire Star-backed County Merit crown

And he only qualified for Crosby as the 'lucky' quarter-final loser in this year's county finals at Adderley, a 21-19 loss to Charlie Weaver proving vital.

• Reaction, pictures and scores in tomorrow’s Star.