Odds look stacked against county set

BOWLS:

GREATER Manchester face a huge task to qualify for the Crossfield Cup semi-finals after heavy defeat by Shropshire on Sunday.

The Manchester lads went down by 49 chalks at the away venue in Newport, despite an excellent win for Waterloo and Taunton’s Chris Heyes.

The result at the home venue at Walmersley Conservative Club proved the bigger disappointment.

Manchester began well enough with the first four winners – including skipper Andy Buckley (Nimble Nook) and Tonge pair Andrew Cairns and Jimmy Derby.

But with the exception of Ian Turrell and Tonge’s Matt Gillies in the middle order, and anchor man Gary Ellis, that was as good as it got for Manchester who slumped to a 220-213 loss.

It’s back to the drawing board in the search for a suitable home venue for the final group match against Warwick and Worcester on July 7.

Both teams have a chance to qualify, but so do North Midlands and Shropshire. Two teams will end up with two wins, so it will go down to superior aggregates.