A LIST of bowlers to emerge from a qualifier for the Cheshire Senior Merit is an indicator of the strength in depth in mid Cheshire.

Five of the seven to secure a spot at next month’s finals day have claimed the title in the past.

Pete Illidge, the defending champion who took the crown while a member at Rudheath last season, is among them.

Now at Wharton Cons, he will be joined in the field by teammates Glynn Cookson – a five-time winner – and Daniel Nixon.

Castle’s Steve Morrey, a semi-finalist at the British Individual Senior Merit for a second time at Nuneaton in 2017, is on course to have another crack at the game’s biggest prize.

Andy Hamman, another from the Northwich club, has made it through too.

The list is completed by Castle’s John Gurney, who took first prize back in 1988, and Gerald Merry.

The Delamere veteran went on to match Gurney’s feat in the final 12 months later.

That group emerged from a field of more than two dozen bowlers at Owley Wood Club, in Weaverham, last Saturday.

Their reward is to take on the best of the rest from across the county in Ellesmere Port, at a venue to be decided, on Sunday, June 24.

It is from during one-day tournament that Cheshire’s representatives for the ‘All England’ championships, as it is referred to by bowlers, is determined.

Illidge’s victory on finals day last time out ensured he made his debut on the national stage, where he reached made it to the last 32.