Thank you to Mike Potter for the below report.
Shropshire County Jack & Jean Isherwood Qualifying Competition
Played, by kind permission, on the green of Telepost Bowling Club on Mon 20th May 2024
A field of 17 players gathered at Telepost 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 in July.
Upon arrival we were greeted by cloudy skies that were burnt away by the end of the session and everyone that stayed enjoyed an afternoon of warm sunshine and after four hours of action we knew who our representatives at the finals day would be.
As per the competition rules, all games began with 3 chalks given to each player.
Highlights of some action included
Pre-Lim:
The only pre-lim game of the day saw Keith Pessall & Ian Gaut match each other until at 7-7, Keith seized control of the jack and held it for 11 ends as he slowly edged his way running out 21-07.
Round 1
Keith’s reward for his win was to face one of our qualifying players of last year, Mark Thomas who had to fight hard to turn a 9-12 deficit into a strong 20-12 lead and after Keith had battled his way back in to the game, Mark finally finished it 21-18.
An evenly matched game saw Nick Davies & Wayne Rogers share the lead several times with the scores going 5-5, 10-10, 14-14 and until 16-16 when Nick pushed on to 20-16 before ending it 21-17.
Dave Povey turned a 9-10 deficit into a 19-11 lead over Chris Partridge who fought back before Dave won the game 21-15.
With the scores tied 8-8 after sharing the first 8 eight ends, John Clarke wasted little time to run out against Dave Nicholls, winning the next 8 ends to win 21-08.
Another evenly matched start saw Tony Roche & John Nash at 9-9. Then Tony went on a run to take it up to 17-9 before John also hada run of his own to level it again at 18-18 only to have Tony take the game 21-18.
Pete Nicholls took a shared score with Derek Wright of 9-9 onto a 16-10 lead which he managed to maintain through to the end 21-15.
From 5-7 down, Ian Foster fought his way in to a 15-9 lead over Graham Turner who himself rallied to get back before Ian won 21-17.
Dave Redge moved from 10-10 onto 16-10 against Phil Lyttle who hit back to level at 16-16 only to see Dave run out 21-16.
Round 2
Nick Davies and Mark Thomas matched each other down the card as scores went 5-5, 9-9, 12-12, and 16-16 from where Nick took the last 3 ends to win 21-16.
John Clarke had to battle back from 6-13 down against Dave Povey and eventually levelled at 14-14 and then after trailing 18-19 John edged his way to a 21-19 win.
From 7-7, Tony Roche moved onto lead Pete Nicholls 18-10 and soon finished the game 21-13.
Ian Foster & Dave Redge went from 7-7, 10-10 and 13-13 until at 14-14 Ian gain control of the jack and held it to run out 21-14.
Qualifying Games:
Nick Davies from 8-10(10ends) down, single pointed his way up to 15-10(15ends) against John Clarke, and was able to maintain his lead after sharing the last 8 ends of the game to win 21-14(23ends).
Meanwhile
Ian Foster from 7-7(7 ends) saw him have to fight back from 8-13(13 ends) against Tony Roche and into a 16-13(18ends) lead and on to 20-14(22ends). Following a strong effort to get back by Tony, the game was finally finished by Ian winning 21-19(27ends)
Qualifying Players:
Our duo to represent and carry the hopes for a Shropshire Champion at the finals at Prees Wednesday 3rd July are
NICK DAVIES & IAN FOSTER (picture below)
Congratulations and Good Luck, Lads,
MP
