THE Prudden Road Surfacing League's annual Pairs Tour-nament, sponsored by the lea-gue president Tony King, with balls supplied by Keith Burke of Motorcaravan Sales, Stu-dley, was staged at Stratford on a glorious late summer's day.

The event was split into three competitions with the top third of the league playing for the Shield, the middle third for the Plate and the remaining teams playing for a new Cup.

In the Shield competition, Stratford B stamped their authority early on with a 10-1 victory over Inkberrow A and they repeated the scoreline with wins over Claverdon A and Chipping Campden A.

While the three defeated teams had their own close battles, Studley A also claimed victories - 8-3 over Campden, 6-5 over Inkberrow and 7-4 over Claverdon.

Studley's Dave Innes and Chris Hughes went into the final game with determination but were unable to cope with Callum Bailey and Rob Slatter who helped Stratford to a convincing 9-2 victory and second successive competition success.

Two pools made up the Plate event with the winners of each rewarded with a place in the final. Bidford A with 29 points beat off FISSC B (20) to top Pool A, while HDA Redditch (25) just shaded Shipston A (23) to book a date with Bidford.

HDA's Bob Mannion and Derek Northam looked hopeful, but it was the excellent form of Andy Cox and Matt Saunders that eventually saw Bidford run out 6-3 winners.

Finally, in the new Cup competition, Evesham emerged worthy winners of Pool A with 27 points, ten clear of Alcester.

Ilmington, meanwhile went one better with 37 points, 16 more than nearest Pool B rivals Chipping Campden B.

Mike Tremellen and Paul Whitford matched Evesham's Ray Foster-Morison and Ilia Phoursa in the early games but the latter upped their game to claim a 6-4 triumph.