Red-hot Callum Wraight on target for more glory
Shropshire No.1 Callum Wraight is the bowler they all have to beat again in the county's traditional winter competition at Shrewsbury Severnside.
Winner of the Lew Page mixed singles trophy last year, Wraight swept through to this year's finals on December 2 on cruise control.
The Castlefields star included a previous winner of the title, Brian Clarence of Clough Hall, as a 21-8 victim as he came through Sunday's first qualifying session in the sunshine.
But the good conditions hardly caused a surge in entries on the day, organiser Barry Jennings lamenting: "We had 60 turn up and pay. You would have thought the sun would have fetched out hundreds, but we only had a handful extra on the day."
Three who did turn up on spec, and all Shropshire bowlers, were successful in securing one of the 16 tickets to the finals that were up for grabs.
They were county captain Derek Wright (Chester Road), Karl Jones (Pontesbury) and Ford's Geoff Davies, who was merciless as he raced to a 21-5 win in his qualifier.
Other Shropshire qualifiers were Wayne Phillips (Hanwood) – who beat Bayley star Peter Grimston 21-11 to get through – north Shropshire's top veteran Alan Boulton (Adderley) and Carl Pemberton (Hanmer).
But the rest of the qualifiers were all 'outsiders', Jennings adding: "If you ran the competition for Shropshire players it would not survive.
"I just hope that some more locals show their faces next Sunday (when he has 58 entries) because it is the last chance to qualify for the finals."
Father and son Lee and Paul Dale led a charge of five Congleton Park bowlers to qualify, the others being Geoff Brown, Kevin Boon and David Lunn.
Other qualifiers from the first sessions were: Mel Evans (Chadsmoor), Dave Butler (Clough Hall), Gareth Herbert (Greville Arms) and Dave Morrey (Queens Park).
