Callum Wraight sitting pretty during a Panel rest week
Week six of the Potteries Panel sees the Shropshire bowls duo chasing the £700 first prize able to relax with their feet up.
Callum Wraight and Sam Millward are both without fixtures tonight at Biddulph as the hunt for points to make finals night on April 6 continues.
Reigning British Senior Merit champion Wraight is sitting pretty in qualifying group A with five wins from six games to date.
But the pressure is mounting on new Wrockwardine Wood recruit Millward in group B with Josh Towey now joint leader.
Millward lost 26-16 to Stoke star Kerry Morris last week, having won his first game against Martin Davies 31-14, while Wraight got the better of Lee Brown 26-22.
The daunting task of preparing fixtures for a leading Shropshire bowling league has proved more difficult than usual this year.
An executive meeting of the Tanners Shropshire League tonight at the Unison Club in Shrewsbury (7.30pm) will confirm the divisional formats for both the Friday and Tuesday divisions.
But fixture secretary Dawn Gray has not been helped by The Rhyn, one of three new teams accepted into the Friday divisions at the league AGM, withdrawing their application.
All clubs are urged to send a representative tonight, a league spokesperson adding: “The provisional start date for the Shrewsbury divisions is Tuesday, April 11, and for the Shropshire divisions it is Friday, April 28.
“Entries are now being taken for the Tanner, Champagne and Fullwood Cups – by logging on to the club’s page on the Mike Beckett results system – and clubs have until Tuesday, April 11, to enter.”
Matches in Division One of the Tanners Shropshire League will revert to 12-a-side this year while the Tanner Cup will also be 12-a-side with ties played at neutral venues.
The first move to recruit more desperately-needed qualified bowls referees will be made tomorrow.
That’s when a referees seminar will be held at Tilstock Bowling Club, near Whitchurch, starting at 7.30pm, with anyone interested in taking up officiating urged to attend.
It has been organised by the Shropshire Referees Society and follows its pre-season meeting last Friday.
“There was nothing special to report other than the need for more to qualify as referees and promoting the seminar at Tilstock,” said society secretary Louise Cotton.
Those attending the seminar will be encouraged to take the referees exam and then make themselves available to officiate on the local scene.
