Jones steps down ahead of centenary competition
A leading Shropshire bowling league will mark its centenary year with a special doubles competition – but needs someone new to run it, writes Malcolm Fletcher.
The Shrewsbury-based Tanners Shropshire League, launched in 1926, is planning the event to feature bowlers from all member clubs, plus a formal dinner at the end of the season to mark its 100th year.
But the latest meeting of its management committee heard that a successor to competition secretary Rich Jones will need to be elected at the league’s AGM on Thursday, February 26, at Old Shrewsbury BC (7.30pm).
The highly regarded Jones feels it’s time for some fresh impetus in the post – and the league will also have to elect a new county delegate.
The management are pressing ahead with their recommendation that the Friday league grow from two big divisions to three to cater for the current number of 31 teams.
Bandit Bowls
It was Groundhog Day in Bandit Bowls’ latest one-day competition.
Just like seven days earlier, Shropshire king Callum Wraight and winter rival Joe Dicken powered through to Saturday’s final at Meole Brace.
And once gain it was the Castlefields star who landed the top spoils from the £259 prize fund by beating the Sir John Bayley man by exactly the same score as at Joules the week before, 21-15.
A record of 37 entries for the 2025-26 one-dayer campaign meant there had to be nine 13-up round robin groups to produce the line-up for the knockout stages at the Shrewsbury club.
Wraight once again went unbeaten all day, racing past Andy Cooke 21-5 in the semi-finals while Dicken – again denied a trip to Spen Victoria in Yorkshire by a flooded green – saw off Wraight’s clubmate Andy Armstrong 21-11.
Scores from the quarter-finals – Wraight 21 Cheryl Caswell 11; Cooke 21 Scott Harries 19; Armstrong 21 Nigel Ferrington 12; Dicken 21 Ellis Griffiths 12.
Bowls' Big Summer
Shropshire-affiliated clubs have been urged not to miss a ‘big’ chance to help grow the sport of bowls this coming summer.
“The 2026 Commonwealth Games will see bowls take centre stage at one of the biggest sporting events of the summer - giving our sport a real golden opportunity to grow,” said a spokesperson for the British Crown Green Bowling Association.
“And to make sure clubs can capitalise on this moment, Bowls’ Big Weekend is expanding in 2026 into Bowls’ Big Summer - creating more time, more activity, and more chances for people to have a go.
“This means more opportunities for clubs to welcome new players; support alongside normal start-of-season recruitment; making the most of activity happening right across the year.
“Our aim is simple - get as many people as possible onto the greens ahead of Glasgow 2026 that starts on July 23.”
County development officer Pauline Wilson is backing the change of approach and urged all Shropshire clubs to sign up early to the campaign
