Farmer targeting County Merit joy for the fifth time

A four-time winner of the title and the magnificent Charles Beddard Cup that goes with it, the St Georges star has also incredibly lost in six finals over a period that started with his first triumph in 1993.

Farmer suffered again in last year’s final against David Lloyd, but he had his revenge on Sunday when he qualified for the 2023 finals day at the expense of the Sir John Bayley man.

A 21-16 victory at Trench did the trick to secure one of the 32 places in County President Mick Jones’s big day on Sunday, June 25, at a venue yet to be announced.

Joining Farmer on finals day will be three-time champion Callum Wraight, who qualified at Bicton, while two past winners in Rich Goddard and Kiah Roberts got through at Monkmoor and double winner Spencer Clarke starred at Trench.

The Saturday night qualifiers at Bridgewater in Whitchurch saw two past runners-up in Rich Lawson and Keith Wall deliver the goods along with former Shropshire Junior Merit winner Ben Hinton.

The full list of qualifiers: Callum Wraight, Mark Shore, Jesse James, Nick Davies, Rich Goddard, Kiah Roberts, Will Tyler, Adie Rowe, Will Tarrell, Ash Wellings, Craig Wilson, Paul Williams, Simon Rhodes, Tony Rhodes, Michael Cooper, Steve Roberts, Jamie King, Scott Harries, Ian Gaut, Josh Bradburn, Pete Farmer, Harry Church, Spencer Clarke, Phil King, Keith Wall, Rich Lawson, Scott Moseley, Gary Beff, Ben Hinton, Martin Gaut, Ian MacDonald and Andy Marshall.

Just four shots – that was the difference between defeat and victory for North Shropshire’s bowlers as they opened their British Parks County Championship campaign.

A super display away held qualifying section B opponents Greater Manchester to a 22-chalk advantage at Ashton CC on Sunday afternoon.

But a 19-shot home win at Woore was not quite enough to stave off an agonising three-shot overall defeat to leave North Shropshire on the wrong end of a 17-14 points scoreline

Five winners out of 12 away was a fine return, Will Childs and Martin Lloyd both winning in the first four and Scott Moseley (21-14), Ieuan Pugh (21-14) and Rob Bennett (21-17) helped them dominate the middle four and actually take the lead.

But the back four all lost as news that all was not going to plan at Woore filtered through.

Rich Lawson won 21-8 early on but Ben Hinton was the next best with a 21-13 card as Greater Manchester battled hard in the back four on the small and tricky green to secure the overall win.

North Shropshire now have to beat Warwickshire – who lost 25-6 to North Staffs – on June 18 to stand any chance of making the knockout stages.