2022 18-25 Merit Report

Dan Beeston 21

Adam Dovey 17

Liam Dovey 21 Will Childs 20

Kieran Buckley 21 Harry Parsonage 20

Jack Purcell 17 Aaron King 21

Dan Beeston 21 Liam Dovey 12

Kieran Buckley 07 Aaron King 21

Ben Hinton 21 Jodie Taylor 16

Phil Jones 12 Matt Farmer 21

Dan Beeston 14 Aaron King 21

Ben Hinton 16 Matt Farmer 21

Aaron King 21 Matt Farmer 07

In response to calls from junior players for some form of competition for players after junior county, a new Merit competition run by the BCGBA for players between the ages of 18-25 led to Shropshire to introduce an 18-25 Merit of our own.

The inaugural competition, staged on the smaller of the two greens at Wem Sports & Social Club attracted 12 bowlers that were to contest the Merit on a very warm Summer’s day.

Dan Beeston, from leading Adam Dovey 5-1 quickly found himself trailing 7-13 and 10-16 but then charged ahead to almost run out before winning 21-17. In a close finish of a game that saw Liam Dovey take a 9-3 start over Will Childs and maintain his lead to 16-10 before a period of 11 ends where neither could hold the jack but with Will scoring double points when winning an end, he eventually tied the game 20-20 but again failed to hold the jack, allowing Liam to win 21-20. In what looked like being a close game turned out just that as Kieran Buckley and Harry Parsonage struggled to lose each other as the scores went 7-7, 14-14, 18-18 and 20-20. Kieran managed to get the win 21-20. In a game that scoring double points at ends appeared to hold the key as Aaron King’s 8 compared to Jack Purcell’s 2. After the scores went from 6-6 onto 12-12, Aaron managed to edge ahead to seal the win 21-17.

Ben Hinton, Jodie Taylor, Phil Jones & Matt Farmer all received byes through to rd2.

Dan Beeston wasted little time pushing into a 10-2 lead before Liam Dovey got going and pulled back to within 3 as he trailed 12-9. Alas that was as close as he got as Dan regained the impetus and soon ended the game 21-12. Aaron King, from 2-2 with Kieran Buckley single pointed his way down the card to lead 10-5 and then scored the 11 chalks needed to win in 8 ends ending Kieron’s hopes 21-7. Ben Hinton, from 4-0 up on Jodie Taylor, soon found himself having to fight back from 11-5 down to tie the scores at 12-12 and after a brief run by each where they tied 16-16, Ben managed to hold the jack long enough to run out 21-16. Matt Farmer saw his 6-1 lead evaporate against Phil Jones who levelled at 6-6, 10-10, 11-11, however from 12-12 Matt ran out in 5 ends to score the 9 chalks he required to win 21-12.

Aaron King and Dan Beeston shared the first 18 ends that saw the scores go from 6-6, 9-9 and 11-11 until Aaron took control of the jack for 8 of the next 10 ends and book his place in the final winning 21-14. Meanwhile, Matt Farmer was opening up a strong 12-2 lead in 10 ends over Ben Hinton who managed to match Matt over another 10 ends that saw the score move on to 19-8 to Matt when Ben went on a run of 5 ends, doubling his tally before Matt got over the line to take the game, 21-16.

Aaron King, took full advantage of the 25 metre mark from one corner over the crown to the middle of the adjacent edge of the green he had found to be fruitful in earlier rounds to forge into a 10-1(8ends) lead and although Matt Farmer tried to change it, he soon found himself back on it as the scores went on to 18-4(15ends) before the end soon came when Aaron finished it off 21-7(20ends)

Competition Secretary/County President, Mike Potter thanked Wem Sports BC for their hospitality and staging the event and announced all four semi-finalists would be representing Shropshire when they take their places in the finals day of the new BCGBA 18-25 Merit and presented the prizes to the worthy Runner-Up, Matt Farmer & 2022 Shropshire 18-25 Merit Champion, Aaron King.