Red-hot Paul Reeves is on a real high
Paul Reeves is basking in the glow of the best 24 hours of his bowling life, writes Malcolm Fletcher.
The Sir John Bayley bowler won the Molson Coors Mid Shropshire League’s Senior Merit on Saturday – and celebrated with a man of the match performance to win 21-7 away at Washlands in Burton for Shropshire as they marched in the county championship semi-finals.
Reeves, the player with the distinctive red and white striped bowls, won the Mid Shropshire title on a lush Donnington Wood No.2 green with four pretty comfortable successes.
He marked a season which has seen him make his Shropshire senior team debut by beating Jamie King 21-15 in the final, recovering from 5-2 down to lead 9-5 and then make the decisive break from 12-10 up.
Defeat meant a second successive weekend of final heartache for King after he and partner Sally Clee had lost to his father and brother, Phil and Aaron, with the Dixon Driscoll Doubles trophy at stake at Maddocks.
Reeves, eligible to play in the competition as he bowls in its Dennis Lewis Thursday Division, beat John Price of runaway first division leaders Hadley USC 21-16 while Jamie King accounted for another Bayley boy, Craig Baugh, 21-13.
“Cheers everyone,” was the understated Reeves reaction as he received the trophy from league president Mike Potter.
