Wraight and Williams battle back to land St Georges crown

Another weekend, another title for Shropshire bowls giant Callum Wraight, only this time he didn’t do it all on his own.

The Castlefields king teamed up with his long standing friend Dan Williams (Sinclair) to win the £640 St Georges two-bowler open competition.

They shared the £280 top prize by beating Wrockwardine Wood twins Tom and Joe Killen, after surviving a huge scare in the semi-finals.

“Callum and Dan won it with an impressive display in the final, Callum finishing off by winning 21-15 against Joe with Dan being 17-13 ahead of Tom,” said promoter Rob Burroughs.

Scott Harries beat Williams 21-16 in a thrilling last four tie, leaving Wraight to get out to win it – and he did 21-15 after a decisive fire at the penultimate end that led to the block going off.

The Killens beat Rhys Marshall and Jamie King of Castlefields in the other semi, Tom winning to 16 and Joe to 18 against Telford-based King.

Saturday’s late night action on a hot day didn’t help Wraight at the finals of the Elland WMC Classic next day near Huddersfield as he was beaten 21-16 in round one for the last 16 by Stuart King.

A fine display saw Joe Dicken beat Andy Armstrong (Castlefields) to get to the semi-finals, but the Sir John Bayley man lost 21-20 in semis to Mark Atkinson, who got beat by Matt Gilmore in the final.

Wraight and Armstrong then headed to Stockport for a qualifier in the £3,600 Houldsworth WMC Open, the Welshman beating the county number one 21-20 to qualify for the finals on July 26.

Back in Shropshire, the third qualifier in the Beryl Taylor Memorial at Shifnal saw Wayne Rogers, Emmett McKinley, Ian Howell and Ronan Allen get through, but organiser Nathan Lacey was not happy.

“Sadly there were two walkovers on the night – and not the first this year either - so sadly prize money will be affected from what was originally published,” he said.