Bowls supremo Coxill sorry for draw blunder

Shropshire bowls competitions supremo has issued a public apology after making a blunder in the county's most prestigious knockout.

John Coxill has held his hands up to the error after just four places in the 32-man final were up for grabs in north Shropshire for Sunday's Brown's of Wem County Merit qualifiers.

"I, as competitions secretary, miscalculated when I did the draw," said Coxill.

"We only had four qualifiers from the north Shropshire venues when we should have had six.

"We had a big entry - it took me six hours to work it all out and I made a mistake. All I can do is apologise."

The 32-strong field will do battle on Sunday, June 27, with Bicton - which last staged the Merit finals in 2000 - chosen as the venue.

The draw for finals day will be made on Friday - full qualifiers in tomorrow's Star.