A field of 17 players gathered at Madeley Cricket & Bowling Club to contest for Shropshire’s two guaranteed qualifying places in the National finals of the Jack & Jean Isherwood (over 60s) Individual Competition that will be staged at Prees BC a month later in July.
Upon arrival, an hour before, we were greeted by a cloudy sky but by the start time, the sun had burnt them away and everyone enjoyed the afternoon bathed in glorious Sunshine that would see four hours of action before we would know who our representatives would be.
As per the competition, all games began with 3 chalks given to each player.
Full results are here.
Highlights of some action included
Pre-Lim:
The only pre-lim game of the day saw Wrockwardine Wood club mates Helen Clee & Tony Garmson match each other until holding a 15-13 lead, Helen counted 5 ends on the bounce to run out 21-13.
Round 1
Helen’s reward for her win was to face another club mate, this time she was up against regular doubles partner, John Clarke who had to claw his way back from 7-11 to level the game 13-13. From there, the pair could only manage single shot winning ends, but by getting more of them, John went through with a 21-17 card.
Mark Thomas went from 5-5 to lead Pete Spragg 13-6 & 18-8 before finishing it off, 21-10.
Ian Gaut & Wayne Rogers matched each other down the card as the scores went from 8-8, 11-11 & 14-14 but with Ian scoring double points ends to Wayne’s single points, Ian took the game 21-17.
Keith Pessall turned a 6-4 score to 14-6 until Derek Wright fought his way back in to it to trail 12-14 only to have Keith retake control and moved to 19-13 and eventually finished 21-16.
Ian Foster saw a 14-7 lead evaporate as John Nash got back to within 1 chalk to trail 13-14. Ian managed to maintain his slim lead until at 18-17 he took the last two ends, winning 21-17.
Paul Williams, from 5-5 raced to a 17-5 lead before Dave Redge hit back with a big run of his own to level the game 18-18 only to see Paul take the final two ends to win 21-18.
Tony Roche from 9-9 went on a run with the jack to lead 19-11 over Alan Boulton and despite a mini fight back by Alan, Tony managed to hold on to secure a 21-16 win.
A very evenly matched game between Bob Renke & Brian Walters saw the scores go from 6-6, 11-11 and 15-15, then from 17-17, Bob took three ends to win 21-17.
Round 2
Bob Renke had to fight hard to turn round a 4-11 deficit and, by only dropping 2 of the next 12 ends went in to a 18-13 lead over John Clarke before ending it 21-15.
Mark Thomas and Ian Gaut shared the first 10 ends as scores went 4-4 to 10-10. Then Mark went on to take 7 of 9 ends to finish off Ian’s hopes and take the game, 21-12.
Ian Foster maintained a 6 chalk lead over Keith Pessall as the scores went from 10-4, 14-8 and 19-13 before ending the game 21-15.
Tony Roche battled hard from 7-13 down to level it up with Paul Williams 16-16 and went on to lead 19-16. Paul levelled it 19-19 and 20-20 before Tony took the last of 27 ends to win 21-20.
Qualifying Games:
Tony Roche wasted no time building a big lead by scoring 11 chalk in 6 ends to lead Bob Renke 14-3(6 ends). Although Bob did mount a revival effort a little to trail 7-14(10 ends) but he could not stop Tony’s charge as just after making double figures, the game was over with a score line of 21-10(17 ends) as Tony booked his finals day ticket.
Meanwhile
Mark Thomas from 6-6(6 ends) saw his 14-8(12 ends) lead over Ian Foster, disappear as Ian drew level 15-15(18 ends) and 19-19(23 ends) only for Mark to take the last 2 ends and qualify, winning 21-19(25 ends).
Qualifying Players:
Our duo to represent and carry the hopes for a Shropshire Champion at the finals Wednesday 5th July are
TONY ROCHE & MARK THOMAS
Congratulations and Good Luck, Lads,
MP
