A home game against Pembrokeshire was on the fixture card for Shropshire in division three of the UKDA National League, the home side looking to consolidate their number two post and 164 points while their visitors were six places below them on 107 points.
However, the ladies ‘B’ game didn’t have the best of starts as Pembrokeshire’s Mellisa Bird beat Lauren Kempson 3-2 and doubling the away team’s lead was Ffion Davies with her 3-1 success over Sara Jones. A 3-0 win from Dianne Newton over Siobhan Jones-Blake halved the arrears for Shropshire and with a 3-2 win and 16.39 average for award winner Gemma Smith against Liz Williams, the score was level at 2-2.
The away side went ahead again in the penultimate encounter, Nevita McConalogue beating Tanya Dolman 3-2 but Kirsty Millington salvaged a share of the spoils when she won the final game against Kayleigh Jones 3-2.
WOW!! What can you say about Shropshire’s men’s ‘B’ side apart from saying they were in superb form and outstanding as they handed out a massive 12-0 whitewash to their opponents. In the first half games there were wins for Josh Pickett, Brian Dolman, Eddie Austin, Simon Pritchard, Reece Cook-Lucas and Brian Hickman who in turn accounted for Jake Hughes (4-2), John Lewis (4-1), Mino Williams (4-0), Joseph Lewis (4-1), Luke Leonard (4-2) and Paul Babb (4-1).
The second half was basically a repeat of the first as Shane Passey, Steve Lynch, Mark Jones, Jon Blakemore. Mitch Pickett and Chris Hill added their wins over respective opponents Gordon Summers (4-1), Gareth Earls (4-1), Sam Done (4-0), Taz Halliday (4-0), Julian Gape (4-0) and Rob Howells (4-0). The man of the match award went to Jon Blakemore who in his win over Taz Halliday chalked up a 27.83 average.
The opening four games of the ladies ‘A’ match all went with the first throw advantage with Angharad Bessant and Rhian Evans twice giving Pembrokeshire the lead when they in turn won 3-1 and 3-2 against Deana Sheldon and Marie Riggs. Cancelling out the away team’s leads were Nicola Ball and Michele Pritchard, Nicola winning 3-2 against Sophie Earls and Michele having a straight 3-0 success against Tracy Hopton.
Breaking the sequence was Shropshire’s lady of the match Jenna-Louise ball who beat Natalie Alker 3-0 and averaged 20.59. With a final 3-1 win for Sarah Williams over Jess Rees, the final score was 4-2 to Shropshire taking their overall advantage to a winning 19-5.
The men’s ‘A’ game began with Richard Parker (Shropshire) kicking off with a match award winning performance as he accounted for Declan Coles with a 4-3 result and 26.16 average. Eirwyn Evans cancelled out Parker’s win when he beat Kye Simmonds 4-1 but the remainder of the half was Shropshire’s as Sam Aitkens won 4-2 against Mikey Rees, Mark Zambra beat Stephen Castle 4-0, Adam Thackray won 4-1 against Anthony Lewis and with a 4-2 result for Andy Vellender against Gareth Earls the hosts were 5-1 up.
Pembrokeshire began the second session much stronger as Steve Smith won 4-1 against Kevin Harris, Kelvin O’Keefe beat Brett Cooper 4-3 and with a 4-0 win for Llew Bevan the visitors were back in the game, having reducing the arrears to 5-4. That however was the end of the fight back for the away team as Andrew Jervis and Ben Johnson in turn won 4-1 against Andy Alker and Steve Young and with anchor-man Andre Knox beating Luke Leonard 4-2 the result was an 8-4 win for Shropshire.
The big 24-12 overall victory for Shropshire saw them hold on to second place still behind Norfolk but having slightly reduced the deficit by one point to twenty-two.
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