17 of the county’s young bowlers and their families gathered around the old green at deputy president, Brenda Slingo’s chosen by venue of Bowring BC to contest the 2023 running of the County Junior Merit.
And as the day’s proceedings unfolded, it became clear to see at the Wellington venue, the spectators were in for a treat of viewing some fine bowling from the young talent on show.
Players losing their first games were to be given a second chance of tasting Cup glory as they were allowed free entry in to a consolation competition for the Peter Ashton Cup.
Highlights from the Peter Ashton Consolation
There would have been 8 players contending the Consolation Cup, however, due to a family urgent commitment one player was forced to withdraw that allowed a rematch between Tom Oare and Wayd Pawlowski that saw Tom exact “revenge” for his defeat by Wayd in the main competition as from 9-9 he went behind to trail 10-14 before hitting back to race to 20-14 and end it 21-16.
Harvey Rudkin single pointed himself to 9-0 and on to lead 13-5 before Tad Broome fought his way back in to it to trail 11-14 only to have Harvey to almost run out as he ended the game 21-12.
Harry Brookes turned his 6-5 advantage over Logan Church in to 16-9 and kept his foot hard on the pedal to finish it off 21-10. Cerys Marshall and Luke Morris could not lose each other on the green that saw the card go from 7-7, 11-11, 15-15 until at 18-18 Cerys hit the vital chalks to win 21-18.
In the semi-finals, Harvey Rudkin pushed on from 6-6 to lead Tom Oare 14-8 who came back to trail 13-18 and even levelled it 19-19 only to see Harvey snatch victory in the 26th end of the game, 21-19.
Cerys Marshall raced away, winning 12 ends on the bounce in the corners to lead a luckless Harry Brookes 19-0 who just managed to avoid the whitewash as she made short work of it to finish 21-1 in 15 ends.
In the final of the Consolation, Cerys Marshall, carried on where she left off in the semi-final, playing the corners to perfection. But this time Harvey Rudkin was the victim who also just managed to avoid a whitewash as at 20-0(14ends) he counted a single point with an excellent corner to corner bowl that received a deserved cheer from the crowd but any sign of a recovery was quickly quashed as Cerys finished the game off two ends later, 21-3(17ends).
