From the Blues to the league title for bowls team

Last year’s blues turned into this year’s title boost for Premier bowlers in the Shropshire veterans inter-league championship.

The Premier Blue team, beaten in the 2025 final by Mid Shropshire due to the handicap after the scores were level, went one better on Saturday to reign supreme.

They raced to the Derek Wright Shield by beating North Shropshire A in the crunch game played on Wrockwardine Wood No.1, winning all six games for a 29 shot margin.

Captain Mark Thomas was their best with a 21-9 card after they had avenged last year’s final result by beating Mid Shropshire A by 13 with five winners in the semi-finals, Nick Davies winning 21-8.

North Shropshire A beat their B counterparts by five in the last four, captain Colleen Harding their best winner 21-10, the knockout stages seeing the winners of round robin groups played on Wood No.2 and both greens at Bowring, plus the best runners-up, involved.

Mid Shropshire A came through as the best of the runners up courtesy of a 40 shot victory over Tanners A in their first game at Bowring while North Shropshire recovered from losing their opening game against Premier Yellow on Wood No.2 by beating Tanners B by 23 and Mid Shropshire C by 13.

Many of the over-60s who took part will now play in Shropshire’s British Veterans Merit qualifier on Monday, June 1, starting at 12 noon at Maddocks, but they will need to enter in advance.

“We normally run this as ‘enter on the day’ - but this year we must have an entry before the closing date on Saturday (MAY 16),” said organiser Mike Potter.

“The reason for this is I've just found out the BCGBA require us to tell them the number of entries by Sunday for them to then calculate our number of qualifiers for the British finals day on Wednesday, July 1, at Prees.”