Ged Ashley nets first victory in Series

The Archibald Worthington Club bowler, a series regular, was red hot on a cool day at Prees to finally break his duck and win round seven.

He beat Malpas Sports big gun Paul Bradley 13-8 in Sunday’s final to climb up to 10th in the series points table, having finished 13th in the 2017-18 campaign.

“Ged has been threatening to win a Winter Series round for three years,” said organiser Jamie Brookes.

“On the first much colder Sunday of the series we still had an impressive 48 entrants.

“And Ged played well throughout the day so well done.”

Ashley, who was consistent for AWC in both the Whitchurch and Market Drayton leagues in the summer, beat round five winner at Prees, Stoke’s Ian Howell, 13-8 in the semi-finals while Bradley was defeating Nantwich Park Road’s Rich Evans by the same score.

A round-robin loss to Carl Preece was the only setback on the day for Ashley, who played for AWC in the Premier League in 2013, as 12 groups catered for the numbers.

Round eight at the weekend returns to Old Shrewsbury.

The position of county deputy president in 2019 remains up for grabs.

No nominations have been received from affiliated leagues so it is now the duty of the county executive to try to find someone willing and deserving to serve as deputy to Mike Beckett as president next year.

The county association’s finance committee have discussed the possibility of helping with travel expenses for the president in future years to try to make the figurehead role more attractive.

A rise of 2.2 per cent for honoraria for officers will go before the county AGM in February for approval after being proposed by the committee.