Highlights
The conclusion of the 2026 County Championship groups pitched the 2025 winners Yorkshire against North Midlands and Shropshire against Warwick & Worcester in the August Semi-Finals. With the last two years being a Warwick & Worcester v Yorkshire final, was it going to be a third straight year where the two super powers of the men’s game battle it out at the beginning of September, or could there be an upset on the cards?
Yorkshire chose the big green at Meltham Sports while North Midlands plumped for Atherstone Grove, which is a stones throw from Atherstone Cons, where several of their home team play at club level. Stopping the juggernaut that is the Yorkshire away team is always a daunting conundrum for county selectors with very few, in recent times, finding a solution. Could North Midlands pull a rabbit out the hat? Could they find a rabbit or hat?
It wasn’t a great start for them at Atherstone, three of the first four cards were all loses, with Natty Tonks being the only winner, and the home team started with a nine shot deficit. Not ideal, but many have started worse than that against this opponent. Over at Meltham Yorkshire started well and racked up a 23 chalk lead with good wins for Josh Brown and Wayne Moseley. The signs were already ominous for the Midlands team.
The middle order only produced one winner for North Midlands at both venues, Carl Wilkin’s 21-11 being the only resistance to the Yorkshire onslaught, which included wins for both Mordue’s (one at each venue) and good wins from Chris Kelly at home and Stuart King away. A 51 shot lead at Meltham and a 21 shot lead at Atherstone, this game was over after eight and the Yorkshire train keeps on rolling.
A very spirited fight in Meltham by North Mids brought the Yorkshire home down in numbers, with wins for Anton Davis, Matty Allen & Tyler Dewis at the back, and overall I’m sure the North Midlands away team were very satisfied with holding Yorkshire to a 33 shot deficit. At Atherstone the previous trend continued and despite a sound win by Matt Horton, Nathan Haigh’s 21-8 was the best win of the day and sealed a 35 shot win for the away team and an overall win for Yorkshire by a comprehensive 68 shots.
So it’s down to Shropshire to cause the upset and prevent a repeat of the 2024 & 2025 finals. Warwick & Worcester chose Solihull Marsh Lane (right), which served them well in the Semi-Final in 2025 against Potteries & District, while Shropshire went for Bowring B.C. Green No.1.
I’ve watched Warwick & Worcester Ladies play on Marsh Lane earlier in the season and with a significant slope up towards the missing corner and some subtle contours away from it, you can see why it’s become a bit of a home banker for both the Ladies and Men’s W&W County teams. Burton & District Ladies only lost by 15 on it. I’m sure before the day, Shropshire Men would have bitten your hand off for a similar result, and if they could hold it to the 20’s, I’m sure with Bowring’s pace, they might just fancy an upset.
It started well for Warwick & Worcester at Marsh Lane. Two single figure wins from Ross Dunkley and Carl Fielding gave them a 31 shot lead from the first four, while cards a Bowring cancelled each other out, three 17’s and a 21-15 from Josh Bradburn only produced a two shot reply.
The trend continued with a full sweep of 21’s at Marsh Lane for the home side took the lead to 60 shots and at Bowring a 21-4 win from Shropshire’s Sam Millward was cancelled out by James Saville’s 21-5 and two more wins for Warwick & Worcester in the middle four gave them a lead away by 9 chalks. Just like the other semi-final, all done bar the shouting, Warwick & Worcester up by 69 with the back four going on.
More wins at Marsh Lane and more cancelled out cards at Bowring just extended the deficit and Warwick & Worcester breezed past Shropshire by an overall 88 shots.
The call on the way back from the BCGBA Supplementary, which is where I spent literally all my day, was that Bowring was just too quick and almost became a lottery with little advantage for the Shropshire home team. How true that is, I really cannot say, I wasn’t there, but I’m sure there’ll be plenty of opinion in the Shropshire camp.
So, definitely a marker put down by Warwick & Worcester for their old friends Yorkshire. It’s ‘one a piece’ over the last two years. Who’s going to win the decider? See you in September.
Congratulations to Warwick & Worcester & Yorkshire on their Semi-Final wins. September will be a riveting final between these two.
Full results can be found on the Men’s County Championship Competitions Page.