8 out of 10 for Vics in Shield Victory over Birkenhead Park.
The Vics afternoon “A” team had 8 winners on Wednesday to progress to the next round of the Centenary Shield. On a sunny, warm afternoon at Thingwall and on an excellently prepared green, the Vics pulled back 14 shots of the 20 they had to give to opponents, Birkenhead Park, after the first four blocks. Both Andrew Stratton, 21-10 and Dick Peake, 21-18 carried their league form into this competition with good wins and Malcolm Johnson got off the mark for the season with a steady 21-16 victory. The Vics had forged well ahead after the middle four, with Elwyn Williams, in unstoppable form at the moment winning, 21-05 and Keith Etches, also unbeaten for the Vics so far, winning 21-10. Eddie Clayburn won again, this time 21-15 and when Skipper, Billy Atkinson completely overpowered his opponent 21-02, the match was over and done with apart from a titanic struggle between Robby Franklin and Stan Kelly which went all the way before Robby finally ended up winning 21-20. The final winning margin after the handicapping came into effect was a 37 shot victory for the Vics.