Taylor Support Shropshire Premier Bowls League
Ifton won a thrilling Audlem Special Events Alan Mayhew Trophy Final tonight by just 3 chalks against the previous winners Castlefields. They flew out the blocks to lead by 27, before Castlefields fought back to trail by 8 after eight games off. They then went 5 up off 10 games, but Ifton won the last two games to win by 3 overall.
Ifton had a great start taking all four winners in the front. Owen Jackson led Wayne Rogers 16-7 before Wayne got back to 17, Nick Jones was 10-3 and 18-7 up on Tom Palmer and won 11, Craig Griffiths had a close game with Mike Beer but then ran out from 17-16 up and Robin Bennett led 10-4 and won 13.
The Fields hit back though, Andy Armstrong was 5-2 down to Ian Jones but went 9-5 up and won 9. Gary Neal then added a 10 win, going 17-5 up from just 7-5 ahead. But Joey Williams got an important 14 win for Ifton from 9-6 down, however Jon Palmer edged out Andy Hughes 18 from 13-8 behind.
The back four saw Ifton captain Dickie Jones lead Rich Goddard 11-5 but Rich hit back to lead 17-14 and won 19. Andrew Judson and Joe Langford were having a close game, but Adam Jones led Ieuan Pugh 16-3 for Fields, however Martin Jones was 12-3 ahead of Ash Wellings for Ifton. Ieuan though did get back to 10 which meant that Fields led for the first time by 5. At this stage, Andrew and Joe were 18 across, while Martin led Ash 19-13. Andrew and Ash scored singles, before Ash then got another single. Joe struck Andrew off to make it 19 across, and then led two bowls down the edge within a foot and won 19 for Ifton. This left Martin leading Ash 19-15. Ash led a bowl within two foot but Martin beat it. Ash struck and missed, and Martin played the same bowl to win the trophy for Ifton for the second time. His excellent bowling under pressure earned him the “Mark Burroughs” man of the match award.
| No | Castlefields | Score | Score | Ifton |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wayne Rogers | 17 | 21 | Owen Jackson |
| 2 | Tom Palmer | 11 | 21 | Nicky Jones |
| 3 | Michael Beer | 16 | 21 | Craig Griffiths |
| 4 | Rhys Marshall | 13 | 21 | Robin Bennett |
| 5 | Jon Palmer | 21 | 18 | Andrew Hughes |
| 6 | Andrew Armstrong | 21 | 9 | Ian Jones |
| 7 | Gary Neal | 21 | 10 | Darren Lacey |
| 8 | Josh Hale | 14 | 21 | Joey Williams |
| 9 | Rich Goddard | 21 | 19 | Dave Dicky Jones |
| 10 | Andrew Judson | 19 | 21 | Joe Langford |
| 11 | Adam Jones | 21 | 10 | Ieuan Pugh |
| 12 | Ashley Wellings | 15 | 21 | Martin Jones |
| Games | 5 | 7 | Games | |
| Aggregate | 210 | 213 | Aggregate |
Well done to Ifton on their success, and to Castlefields for being part of a great final, this final has now been won by 1, 2 and 3 chalks!
Thank you to Bowring for hosting, and to Audlem Special Events Trophy for sponsoring again.
