Please find a report below of the 2023 Shropshire Verti-Drain Veterans Inter League with the help of Competitions Secretary Mike Potter.
The Mid-Shropshire League are celebrating and saluting their squad of over 60’s players for delivering the Champions Shield as they lifted the Veterans Inter-League title for 2023 on the greens of Old Shrewsbury BC on a hot Summer’s day.
Officials, Andy Jones & Dawn Gray of this year’s hosts, the Tanner’s League greeted the players and welcomed them to the Shrewsbury venue and before splitting the six teams in to two groups of three with Tanners B, Shropshire Ladies & Whitchurch B in group 1 and Tanners A, Whitchurch A & Mid-Shropshire in group 2.
Players were given 6 chalks on the card which was reduced dependent on them being a home player, playing in the Premier League or for the county.
In Group A, Tanners B played Shropshire Ladies first game and won by 33. Best winner was Cliuff Dickenson and Elwyn Beedles 9, while Sue Conneely was best for the Ladies 13. They then beat Whitchurch B to be group winners, Dave Povey leading the way 21-7, while for Whitchurch it was John Davidson’s 16 win which was their best. In the final game of the group the Ladies won by 4, Shirley Hadley the best winner 10, with Gill Edge best for Whitchurch by the same score.
In Group B, Tanners A played Whitchurch A and the Tanners came out on top by 26. Ian Payne was their best winner 9, with Wayne Rogers 21-10 success the best for Whitchurch. Mid Shropshire then beat the Tanners side by 4, with Tony Roche best winner 12. Ian Kilburn was best for Tanners by 8. Mid Shropshire then made it 2 wins out of 2 with a 18 shot win over Whitchurch A, led by captain Ian Evans and Les Mumford’s wins of 13. For Whitchurch it was Alan Faulkner best winner 11.
Full results are here.
The top team from each group met in the final with all players starting on 6, the four games played on each of the two greens saw, on Green No 2
Phil Harris almost completed a perfect game against unlucky Mike Statham as he raced to lead 20-6 before finishing 21-7.
After losing the first end, Pete Burd charged forward to 18-7 then John Davies fought back but stalled as he got to trail 18-13 that let Pete end it 21-13.
Team Captain, Ian Evans turned an 8-8 scoreline in to a 18-9 lead over Elwyn Beedles before getting over the winning line 21-14.
Looking like he’d lost his weight of the green and some good, close bowling from Brian Selley, from 9-9 Les Mumford soon found himself 10-17 behind, but the unlikely became a reality as he managed to run out and won 21-17.
Meanwhile on Green No1
From 10-6 down, Dave Brown fought back to level the game 15-15 with Dave Povey and went on to lead 20-15 before ending it 21-16.
John Clarke pressed forward to lead Cliff Dickenson 10-6 & 14-8 and then from 14-10, John ran out with a 21-10 card.
Pete Spragg saw his 12-6 lead over Tony Parsons, wiped out and from 15-14, Tony almost completed a run out to register a 21-15 winning card.
An evenly matched game saw Tony Roche and Charlie Wilde go from 8-8 up to 14-14 before Charlie made a decisive run and almost ran out to finish the game 21-15.
Final Scores Mid Shropshire 156 119 Tanners B
Mid Shropshire won by 37.
Tanners League Official, Andy Jones, thanked Old Shrewsbury for their hospitality and use of the greens and thanked the team players for their attendance before asking Tanners League Secretary, Dawn Grey to make the presentation of the winners shield to the delighted team captain, Ian Evans and the 2023 Veterans Inter-League Champions, Mid Shropshire League.
Congratulations
