Junior County Merit

Twelve young up and coming bowlers gathered at Old Shrewsbury B.C. to contest the Shropshire Girls Junior Merit on a testing green of variable pace.
The competition was run in a "round robin 15 up " format as the girls were split into two groups of six. All competitors shone in the sunshine, playing some excellent bowls sometimes making difficult to distinguish between the much younger players and their more experienced counterparts.
This year Shropshire will have three representives in the Girls Junior All Britain Finals, the selection would include the two group winners plus one of the two second placed players.

Ends played in ( )
The group 2nd placed players, Holly Bishton and Kerry Newbrook played for the third place. The two players played very similar marks and shared early exchanges as the scores went to 3-3 after 5 ends, Kerry then took a healthy lead 12-5 (14). Holly clawed her way back to within one shot to trail 11-12(18). Kerry responded and extended her lead to 16-12(23)only for Holly to have a 5 end run with the jack to lead 18-16 after(28). The next end saw Kerry pull level 18-18, but alas it was the last she scored as Holly scored the three points required in the next two end to give her the coveted third ticket to the All Britain Finals.

Ends played in ( )
The group winners, Cheryl Caswell and Jade Jones played a "very close" final sharing the first 12 ends to stand at 8-8. Due to the high quality bowling by the two players, they were not able to hold the jack for more than two ends, so the next 12 ends were shared as they explored all corners of the green for the score to also be shared 15-15(23). Then Jade found a 22metre mark across the crown and forced the next four ends to lead 20-15(27). The next end saw Cheryl give herself a chance by scoring a two to trail 17-20(28).
The next end proved to be the match turning point for Cheryl as she set a 24metre and left her lead bowl 4 feet short, Jade's first bowl, looking too fast, crashed off Cheryl's and pulled to within 8 inches of the jack. Facing defeat, Cheryl opted for a weighted "turn over" which sprung the counting bowl out of the end and pushed the jack to five feet away from her own closest bowl. With her last bowl, Jade missed the chance to end the game by dropping her second bowl six feet short. Cheryl 18-20(29).
Cheryl completed her "run out", two ends later 21-20(31) and after over 6 hours competition became the 2006 Girls Junior County Merit Champion.

Good Luck to Cheryl, Jade and Holly in their quest to again bring the All Britain Trophy back to Shropshire.