Bowls round-up: Crunch time for winter league

Two of the four teams locked in the race to be the first champions of the four-a-side league will be in action on the artificial green at the village club near Telford.

Title favourites Shifnal, the only unbeaten side and with a game in hand on top two Bylet and Wrockwardine Wood, take on lowly Unison while fourth-placed Allscott Avengers face the Dynamos.

Both will be aiming for maximum 20-point hauls after Bylet powered to the summit on Monday evening by hammering the Wrockites 20-6 (84-40 on aggregate) with John Newey a 21-7 star.

The top four going into Thursday's fixtures are – 1st Bylet played 13 with 229 points; 2nd Wrockwardine Wood 13-224; 3rd Shifnal 12-223; 4th Allscott Avengers 12-214.

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The bowler who joined Sinclair’s Mid Shropshire League championship quest last season is proving a big hit on the £4,000 Potteries Panel.

Dan Williams, who won 11 of his 15 games for the Telford club, is second in the 24-strong table after two weeks of action on the artificial green at Biddulph.

He beat Ifton’s Andy Armstrong 19-17 and then Joe Dicken of Bylet 24-19 last week – but on Thursday night Williams faces his biggest test in a competition which boasts £1,000 for the winner.

A 7pm game against the reigning Panel champion and big friend Callum Wraight looms, the Shropshire No.1 having already won his four games to date to pull well clear in the table.

The Castlefields star beat Josh Towey 31-8 and Neil Wright 27-11 in his latest matches on a night that saw Armstrong recover to defeat Darren Kerr 21-15, Alex Hassall edge Lee Dale 21-20 and Dicken lose his opener 26-13 to Adam Coxon. 

Dicken has a double-header against Andy Ferris and Matt Hill, Williams also plays Andy Booth and Sam Millward (Wrockwardine Wood) makes his Panel debut for the winter against Aaron Jones.

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Husband and wife, Steve and Kerry Dance, are regulars in the Bandit Bowls winter series and both boast enviable records.

They will both in step again in round 15 at Shifnal on Sunday as the tempo in the race to make the grand finals day next month really hots up.

Bowlers need to be in the top 40 in the series points table to guarantee a place in the hunt for big money prizes on March 30 – and the Dances were hovering around the cut-off point ahead of the weekend action.

But both topped their 13-up round robin groups in the afternoon session at Shifnal to pick up maximum 25-point hauls and climb into the top 40.

Series newcomer Peter Spragg, promoter Jamie Brookes and Donna Larke were also table toppers to boost their safety margin while points pacesetters Callum Wraight, Jock Timlett, Andy Armstrong, Lee Walmsley, John Lea and Cedric Bancroft followed suit.

“There were 91 entries at Shifnal and, with only five qualifying weeks left, the points table is shaping up nicely,” said Brookes. “This coming weekend the one-dayer on Saturday is back at Childs Ercall with round 16 of the winter series at Adderley on Sunday.”

Other group winners at Shifnal were Ed Proudlove, Nick Mullinder, Joe Killen, Tomos Williams, Mark Tyler, Chris Makin, Alison Lewis, John Rawlinson, Dave Lewis, Eleanor Webb and Nantwich's Phil Jones.