Lilleshall duo draw up a path to cup victory

They came out of the hat together for the flat green club’s Jack Bayliss Cup 4-wood Drawn Pairs competition on a gloriously sunny afternoon in the grounds of the National Sports Centre, when 12 members took part.

“The random draw threw up some interesting pairings, including Peter Hancock and Quentin Smith, who only recently finished tied for the ‘yardstick’ competition,” said a club spokesperson. “Their eventual win was Peter’s first in the Jack Bayliss Cup, but was a record seventh win for Quentin – all with different partners!”

The competition was played as a round robin with all six pairings playing every other over just five ends, an unforgiving format which gives little chance of recovering from dropping multiple shots on one end.

After just two rounds Hancock & Smith were the only unbeaten duo – and they maintained their form and went into the final round of games with a 4-0 record. “However, it was not all sewn up as a loss by several shots could have put them at risk of losing out to the next pair with a 3-1 record, if they scored a good win,” added the spokesperson. “That pair – Mike Caird & Ruth Lowe – did achieve their fourth win, but finished in second place as Peter and Quentin closed out another win to take the trophy with maximum points. Third place went to Colin Meadows & Rob Attwood.”

It’s knockout time in three Shropshire bowls leagues on Wednesday.

There are 11 preliminary round ties this afternoon in the Market Drayton Senior Citizen’s League Eric Dobson doubles KO, a late change of neutral venue meaning Adderley B will now take on Con Club B at Cheswardine (2pm start).

Tonight sees three prelim clashes on neutral greens in the SPS Whitchurch League’s Jubilee Doubles while it’s a double cup evening in the Molson Coors Mid Shropshire League. There’s the first round of the Ashton Cup for Monday division teams and also four preliminary clashes in the league’s main Harris Cup, which is now a five home-five away competition.