Wrockwardine and Bayley up for Super Cup

Five Premier League sides were among the first to get their names in the hat for the four home-four away 31-up knockout that sees the Arthur Land Trophy go to the winners.

“Wrockwardine Wood, Sir John Bayley, Castlefields, Meole Brace and Hanmer have entered – and I assume Hanwood and Adderley will follow down the line,” said Rob Burroughs.

He and fellow Premier official Martin Gaut and Alex Wolfenden are the three-man team who run the competition which this year will have a finals day at a Yorkshire venue on Saturday, October 14.

Entries, costing £50 per team, will be taken until March 31 up to a maximum number of 64, and regionalised first round ties will need to be played by May 27.

The Shropshire bowls duo chasing a £700 prize as Potteries Panel champion can tonight take total control of their qualifying groups.

Reigning British Senior Merit champion Callum Wraight takes on Lee Brown at 7pm at Biddulph knowing that a fifth win from six Group A games would see him heading towards finals night on April 6.

And fellow county senior team man Sam Millward has the same goal in Group B as he prepares for a double header against Kerry Morris and winless Martin Davies. Millward, set to join reigning Premier League champions Wrockwardine Wood this season, already sits top of his table after a vital win over main rival Josh Towey 28-16 which followed a 27-14 success over Chris Jenkins.

A popular and friendly bowling league is Shropshire is growing again.

The Wem League boasts three new clubs for the 2023 season thanks to Wrockwardine Wood, Sinclair and Monkmoor being voted in at its AGM.

That will give the Monday night league four divisions of 10 teams playing 10-a-side fixtures this season, to the delight of secretary Graham Hughes.

“Wrockwardine Wood and Sinclair applied to join the league and Monkmoor applied to return to the league after missing the 2022 season,” he said.

“All three clubs were elected unanimously and Sinclair and Wrockwardine Wood were placed in division one with Monkmoor returning to their original place in division two.”

But Hughes told last week’s annual meeting that a lack of interest in the league cup competitions meant he had drawn up a new format which introduced separate competitions for divisions one and two teams (the Knockout Cup) and division three and four sides (the Elizabeth Taylor Trophy).

The Consolation Cup and a new trophy, the Barry Jennings Cup, will be played for by teams eliminated in the preliminary and first rounds of the main competitions.

“The new competitions will mark the long-standing commitment to the league of our previous secretary, Liz Taylor, and current chairman Barry Jennings.”

Jennings paid tribute to league sponsors Browns of Wem for their continued support and treasurer Mike Spencer reported a small surplus for 2022, a proposal to increase match fees to 40p per player this year being approved.