In the Shutt Cup final kindly hosted by Bilton Working Men’s Club, the first players to the green were Wayside Rangers Chris Watcham and Black Swan’s Angela Hodgson. Putting some early nerves aside it was Watcham who settled in to take a good 21-9 win.
Swan skipper Ian Morrell lead by captain’s example against Joan Forbes winning 21-15 and securing his team’s first win. Mary Mason used all her experience against Keith Agars bowling well to secure another win for the Rangers 21-15. Alan Walker has been in very fine form this season and so it continued in this final as he brought the first half to a close beating Trish Howarth 21-8.
At the midway point it was the Rangers who held the advantage with 3 victories from 4 games and an overall aggregate lead of 78-53.
Black Swan were soon pushing to change this however as they set off in the second half with John Rowson beating Anne Sykes 21-9 and Tony Waterfield beating Sandy Forbes 21-18 bringing the score within 10 chalks.
Colin Rigby steadied the ship for the Rangers however with a very cool display bowling very well to beat Alan Hodgson 21-15. Ian Voakes brought the final to a close securing Swan’s fourth victory of the night beating Dave McDonald 21-16.
It was a valiant effort by the Swan rear-guard however the Rangers held on by a 9 point margin to take the cup with a 142-131 victory. Congratulations were again given to both teams for a very entertaining final.
