Tom Hardy making a late surge in Winter Series
Tom Hardy is in a winning mood as he prepares to help Adderley make another shot at the promised land of the Shropshire Premier League.
The highly regarded Hardy proved his form by winning round 19 of the North Shropshire Parks winter series on his own patch on Sunday.
He brushed aside Rich Lawson, a three-time winner this winter and a team-mate in Adderley’s Whitchurch League championship side, 13-5 in a final played as conditions deteriorated.
“On another pleasant March morning we had another fantastic turnout out of 52 at Adderley,” said upbeat series organiser Jamie Brookes, the greenkeeper at the village club near Market Drayton.
“Unfortunately the one heavy continuous period of rainfall was for the final, but the consistent Tom Hardy won it 13-5.”
He beat last week’s winner Kerry Dance (Hadnall) 13-11 in the semi-finals while Lawson was accounting for another Adderley man, Chris Stretch, 13-9.
Hardy has only played in what is the sixth winter series since January but is already up to 50th in the points ranking table as he makes a late bid for the top 32 and a ticket to the big money finals day on March 29.
Big guns Callum Wraight and Peter Farmer both bowed out in the last 16 and the full quarter-final results were: Dance 13 Alan Boulton 4, Lawson 13 Josh Warner 2, Hardy 13 Jamie Brookes 8, Stretch 13 Chris Elsbury 6.
Lawson and Ian Howell are now joint leaders in the rankings going into the penultimate round this coming weekend at Prees.
And straight after that the North Shropshire Parks association’s AGM follows on Monday at Whitchurch’s District Club (7.30pm).
