Callum Wraight reels off another Panel win

The Shrewsbury king stretched his proud unbeaten run on the British Professional Panel by defeating the last person to beat him at the Red Lion, Westhoughton – David Higginbottom – 41-27 last Friday afternoon.

But the 35-year-old suffered the agony of a 21-20 defeat in the final of week 14 of the winter sweeps at Spen Victoria in Cleckheaton next day, followed by a 21-17 first round exit when partnering Darren Plenderleith in the £3,000 Garswood Doubles on Sunday in Wigan.

Ryan Clark was Wraight’s conqueror at Spen and a spokesman for the West Yorkshire club said: “Congratulations to Ryan and commiserations to Callum - but once again it was superb finish to an excellent day’s bowling.

“A bumper entry of 54 players were met with extremely challenging conditions, with the greens frosted over and temperatures barely above freezing all day.”

Having beaten Simon Walder 21-6 in the last four, Wraight went into the final as firm favourite and was soon 7-2 up after six ends.

Clark responded by winning the next seven ends to take a 10-7 lead, only for Wraight to surge 16-10 ahead and eventually regain the advantage at 20-19 with two singles.

“This was the fifth lead change in what was another classic final and somehow Clark fought back and a single took the game to 20-20 and, with jack in hand being so vital in the worsening conditions, he managed to sneak over the line with a single at the last end,” added the spokesman.

Wraight is scheduled to play Lee Johnstone on the Panel tomorrow (FRI) and is already making plans for the summer with another trip to the East Coast Festival at Scarborough booked for August 22-26.

Mid Shropshire bowlers took advantage as the North Shropshire Parks’ winter series migrated south.

Round 15 was held at Newport and Sir John Bayley duo Michael Cooper and James Blair and Shifnal’s Sue Conneely used their better green knowledge to top their round robin groups.

Cooper and Conneely both went unbeaten while Blair lost 13-12 to series organiser Jamie Brookes, but topped his table by having the best chalks average per game.

“Newport was another success – the greens were in great nick and ran very nice,” said Brookes.

“We had a total of 59 bowlers enter with 23 in session one and 36 in the afternoon session.”

Whitchurch father and son, Richard and Ed Proudlove, were also group winners along with Phil Jones, Alan Boulton, Derek Wright, Roger Candlin, Harry Wilson, Mitch Hayes, David Cunningham, Paul Holt and Gareth Davies.

Another good haul of points means Jones still leads the series points table on 164, just ahead of Hadnall’s Chris Elsbury (161) and Adderley’s ace veteran Boulton (155).

The funeral of the president of Shropshire Ladies bowls during one of its most successful periods will be held later this month.

Joyce Barnes, who was the figurehead of the association between 2004 and 2010, died, aged 96, on December 29.

A stalwart member of Albrighton Bowling Club, her funeral will be at Telford Crematorium on Wednesday, January 26, at 11.30am.

Former county treasurer Carole Beer paid tribute by saying: “It’s very sad as Joyce was a lovely lady and Shropshire Ladies President for many years.”

Mabel Finnigan, who succeeded Barnes as Ladies President, described her has being very generous to the association, even paying for the coach to one away county fixture.

Her seven season period period at the helm included Shropshire being crowned British Ladies county champions for the first time in 2008, Wrockwardine Wood women winning the club championship in the same year and four British Ladies Junior Merit triumphs by Cheryl Caswell, Holly Bishton and twice by Jade Jones.