Rogers duo secure a third Father & Son title

The bowlers, who are back playing together again for Woore in the Whitchurch League, won the title for a third time with five victories at District.

A 21-14 success over plucky Meole Brace duo Alan and Aiden Hughes did the trick in Saturday’s final after 20 pairings had taken part on the Whitchurch club’s two greens.

“The final looked like it may be an evenly-matched game with the Rogers’s looking to erase the memories of many defeats in the competition’s recent finals to take the title for a third time while the Hughes’s were chasing their first,” said organiser Mike Potter. “The seasoned doubles pairing of Wayne and Steve had to fight hard and trailed Alan and Aiden 4-10 and then 8-13 after 14 ends. But from there they found a very favourable 21-metre straight mark and they only dropped a single chalk to win the final 21-14 in 23 ends after eight hours of top class bowls action in another successful competition.”

The eventual winners had avenged last year’s final defeat by beating Carl and Ben Hinton with two full house fours in a 21-6 romp in the quarter-finals.

Then in the semi-finals Wayne and Steven Rogers recovered from 13-8 down to beat Gary and Conner Whitehall 21-19 while Alan and Aiden Hughes saw off Tim and Will Childs 21-13

Quarter-final scores: Wayne & Steven Rogers 21-06 Carl & Ben Hinton; Gary & Conner Whitehall 21-08 Geoff & Josh Warner; Alan & Aiden Hughes 21-05 Spencer & Thomas Clarke; Tim & Will Childs 21-19 Jamie & Will Brookes.

Shropshire bowlers are closing in on the Tourism titles at the Isle of Man June Festival.

Five of them are through to the last eight of the men’s and ladies competitions, with the finals being played today at Nobles Park in Douglas.

Castlefields pair Callum Wraight and Jon Palmer are in opposite halves of the draw in the men’s KO while Wrockwardine Wood duo Hollie Bishton and Barbara Hughes face each other in a ladies quarter-final, with clubmate Helen Clee in the other half of the draw.

Table-toppers compared to rock bottom – the contrast between the two Shropshire sides in the British Ladies County Championship could not be starker.

Shropshire are flying high in qualifying section three after another huge home and away win on Sunday, this time against Lancashire, but North Shropshire are cut adrift in group two after another humbling at the hands of Dudley.

A 160-shot overall success from legs at Hanwood and Ashton Cricket Club sets Shropshire up for a crunch clash with South Yorkshire next month, the winner of which will grab the ticket to the semi-finals.

Eleven wins from the 12 games at Hanwood put Lancs on the ropes with Natalia Connor (21-2), Cheryl Caswell (21-3), Molly Sullivan (21-5), Jane Archer (21-6) and Sonya Lucas (21-7) leading the 131-chalk avalanche.

And the county coped with Isle Man Festival absences away at Ashton too as another eight winners added up to a 29-shot margin with Camilla Parsonage (21-8) and Jackie Rutter (21-9) the tops.

It was another demoralising day for North Shropshire with the 100-shot loss to Dudley leaving them without a point from two games.

They had eight winners at home at Hodnet, but Joan Groom’s 21-13 card was the best of them in a 12-shot setback.

Only Christine Sayers managed to win away at Woodman Saltwells, her 21-11 card helping to keep the deficit down to 88 shots.

The need to settle North Shropshire qualifiers for two British Parks finals mean two competitions have had to be hastily organised for Saturday.

“Apologies for the short notice but, due to needing to book the entrants into the British Parks under-18 and under-25 Merits by June 30, I need to run these two qualifiers on Saturday,” said Jamie Brookes.

It costs £20 to enter the under-25 comp and £15 for the under-18 and entrants must have played in either the Market Drayton or Whitchurch leagues and be registered with a club that is affiliated to North Shropshire Parks.

“We will also be running a NS Parks doubles competition later in the season, which will be a qualifying event for the British Parks open doubles being held in North Shropshire on Sunday, October 1,” added Brookes.