Bowlers chase a Waterloo win at its brand new home

Castlefields competition stars Callum Wraight and Rich Goddard lead the quartet into battle as the last 64 gather at Fleetwood BC, just up the Fylde coast from the closed former spiritual home of the sport in Blackpool.

British No.1 Wraight has an afternoon appointment with Danny Barwise while Goddard aces Andrew Pearson on a day that sees Nick Wyer (Sir John Bayley) and Darrell Handley (Highley) also in the hunt.

There will be no play on Monday due to the state funeral Bank Holiday, so the last 32 will be played on Tuesday morning, the last 16 that afternoon, with finals day for the last eight on Wednesday as usual.

As soon as his game is over, Wraight will head south from Fleetwood tomorrow to take his place in the finals of the £3,100 Packhorse Open Singles in Macclesfield, having qualified on Wednesday night with 21-4 and 21-6 victories.

The camaraderie of the young bowlers in the Molson Coors Mid Shropshire League shone through as they contested three junior titles at Wellington’s Bayley Club.

Tom Killen won the under-18 Merit, Jordan Millman the under-15 crown and Akeel Khan and Will Thompson the Fletcher Junior Doubles.

Killen, the reigning British Parks junior champion, won an all-Shifnal under-18 final 21-10 against Khan while on the same No.1 green Millman came out on top of an all-Sinclair under-15 final 21-14 against Dan Corbett.

Khan and homester Will Thompson teamed up to beat Killen & Millman 21-15 in the doubles final.

There’s no doubting who is the new Champion of Champions of the Telford Ladies Afternoon League.

Pauline Wilson swept to the title at Wrockwardine Wood on Wednesday with two quick-fire wins.

The Bridgnorth Gold bowler beat Wendy Jones (Broseley) 21-4 in the final, having just defeated Denise Jones (Maddocks Red) 21-5 in the semi-finals while Jones was ending the hopes of Bowring’s Georgia Rawlings 21-16.

Wilson, the County Development Officer and coaching chief, had won 13 out of 14 league games for Bridgnorth as they finished runners-up in division one to Sir John Bayley and is in the right kind of form for Shropshire’s British Ladies county championship final against Yorkshire on Sunday.

She will play in the away leg at Lockwood Cons BC in Huddersfield while the home leg is on the county’s banker green of Newport No.2, where they humbled Warwick & Worcester in the semi-

finals.

Shrewsbury were clear victors as the annual veterans match against their arch rivals from Telford for the Dixon Cup resumed after the pandemic.

They claimed the bragging rights in style on home soil with 10 winners and a 59-shot winning margin in the 12-a-side clash played at Old Shrewsbury.

Bob Cliffe (21-6), Mark Thomas (21-7) and Ian Smith (21-8) starred for the Shrewsbury league while Mid Shropshire’s best replay came in the first four with a 21-10 card from Andy James.

North Shropshire Ladies’ bowlers are awaiting official confirmation that they have won the President’s Trophy for a second time.

They were due to play South Staffordshire on Sunday in a decider that had been rearranged for a third time, the winners to receive the trophy and seal a return to the main British Ladies County Championship next year.

But Christine Sayers, chairperson of the Whitchurch-based ladies association, said South Staffs had now conceded the fixture again and they were waiting for a final decision on whether the trophy will be presented from the sport’s governing body.