2015 Playoffs

The 2015 Playoffs were won by Hanwood who beat Former Flowfit Shropshire Premier Bowling League side Archibald Worthington in the final. Please see details below:

Hanwood edge home

Hanwood beat Hanmer in the first pre-playoff game last night on St Georges bottom green to take the first step towards a place in the Flowfit Shropshire Premier League next season. It was a close game throughout and I am grateful that winning joint captain Mark Shore has given me a report of the games last night.

“Hanmer’s Graham Bennett bowled superbly against recent Waterloo Champion Greg Smith with lead bowls that were very close most ends and won 12, but Wayne Phillips bowled excellently for us against Joey Williams to banish the ghosts of last years playoffs winning 12. Mark Parsons produced the game of his season with some intense bowling against Hanmer’s Mike Gilpin winning 13. Also Tony Hotchkiss proved his class against a very good Lee Peate, winning 12 from about 10 across to give Hanwood a lead of 17.

In the middle four and the atmosphere was electric! Hanwood’s Phil Lyttle went out of the blocks like a Whippet producing some great bowls and led game at 20-10 where he put second bowl on top of jack, but his opponent Gaz Jones dispatched that and then ground out 6 more chalks. Dave Burton went from 3-0 down to lead 10-4 and also led 20-10 before some tidy bowling from Hanmer’s Marcus Hughes got him back to 17. Russ Wellings had a cracking game against Jack Butler that was nip and tuck all the way through with Russ producing some great bowls for Hanwood and got out 20. Carl Bowers played with his old wooden bowls for the first time in years and it nearly paid of for him but a battling performance got him to 18 against Hanmer’s Robin Bennett.

Into the back and with Hanwood 23 up Hanmer made a spirited and noisy last ditch attempt at salvaging the game. Young Andy Armstrong against my fellow joint captain Ash Wellings played very well and stood out for Hanmer in the back winning 11. Dave Ellison bowled tight to lead me 20-10 being last game on the green. I played up and caught the jack for one and scrambled to 15. Although the game had been won at this point the aggregate was in our mind for the round robin. Danny Wornell played superb and brought the win home for Hanwood winning 11 against Martin Jones. Phil Price bravely battled but his opponent, Dan Hughes, also bowled very well to win 11.

The game was played in a high spirited and good natured atmosphere with much mutual respect from both teams after the game. Thanks to John Coxill and Mike Potter for officiating.”

 

Full scores:

Hanmer Team:

Back from left: Jack Butler, , , Dan Hughes, , Mike Gilpin, & .

Front from left: Dave Ellison, , Lee Peate, , , , .

Hanwood Team:

Back from left: Dave Payne, Mark Shore (joint captain), Tony Hotchkiss, Dave Burton, Danny Wornell, Mark Parsons (joint captain), Wayne Phillips, Phil Talbot & Phil Price.

Front from left: Rhys Marshall, Kian Parsons, Greg Smith, Ash Wellings (joint captain), Russ Wellings, Phil Lyttle & Carl Bowers.

Hanwood beat Donnington Wood last night by 36 to set up a clash with Archibald Worthington for the right to take their place in the 2016 Flowfit Shropshire Premier Bowling League. This is a report wrote for me by Mark Shore which I greatly appreciate.

“Hanwood powered out of the blocks again with an impressive first four. Mark Parsons led the team out in a quality game against Reece Farr amassing an early lead that Reece could never quite close and Mark won 17. Wayne Phillips and Tony Hotchkiss continued from the first play off game with quality performances as Tony bowled a tricky Mark across the green left to right and Wayne also across the green from the clubhouse as they won 8 and 10 respectively, both utilising the two weights of a perfectly prepared Archibald Worthington green. Greg Smith had a dogged game with Graham Turner both pulling out great shots and strikes but Greg edged it 16 so Hanwood led by 33.

Into the middle and Donnington began a resurgence with Ayden Smith and Dan Taylor getting big leads on Mark Shore and Dave Burton but the two big game players from Hanwood battled back to get 17 & 18 respectively. At the same time Russ Wellings was bowling tidy against Barry Norfield along the wall below the clubhouse to win 12. Kieran Buckley added Donnington’s third winner of the middle four with an 18 victory over David Payne who gallantly fought through the game despite carrying a back injury.

Into the back and Ash Wellings on his bogey green went 5-0 down but recovered to play a similar mark to Wayne across the Middle to win to 8 against Kane Beaman to all but seal the tie. The final three games were finished in a quieter atmosphere as the the game had been won. Paul Evans and Mark Worthington gaining two more close wins for Donnington 18 and 16 respectively and Phil J Price wrapping the evening up against Mark Williams winning 19 to give Hanwood a 36 shot win.”

So it is all down to Friday’s game between Hanwood and Archie at Allscott starting at 7 p.m. Treasurer Rob Burroughs and Secretary Martin Gaut are in charge with Mike Potter as referee. Hope to see you all there which is one of the biggest games in the country let alone the county.

Scores:

Victorious Hanwood

Back from left: Mark Shore (joint captain), Phil Price, Wayne Philips, Tony Hotchkiss, Danny Wornell, Dave Burton & Mark Parsons (joint captain).

Front from left: Dave Payne, Ash Wellings (joint captain), Carl Bowers, Kiah Parsons, Rhys Marshall, Russ Wellings, Greg Smith.

Donnington Wood

Back from left: Graham Turner, Barry Norfield, Kane Beaman, Dan Taylor, Paul Evans, Mark Williams.

Front from left: Dave Taylor, Kieran Buckley, Ayden Smith, Chris Worthington, Reece Farr, Mark Worthington.

Hanwood tonight finally returned to the Flowfit Shropshire Premier Bowling League at the 6th attempt as they comprehensively beat Archibald Worthington by 46 shots with 10 winners. Hanwood never looked back as Autumn Waterloo Champion Greg Smith led them off with a 21-7 win in the corners over John Digby, but with Wayne Phillips 18-3 down against Greg Fordham and having deja vu after getting 3 in last year’s playoff, it looked like that would be cancelled out, especially with Greg playing exceptionally well on a 35m mark. But Wayne fired the jack off twice and then got himself back to 18-12 before Greg ran out. Hanwood joint captain Mark Parsons was always in front against Les Markham using little round pegs to his advantage, but from 14-10 up he sealed a 12 victory to cancel out Wayne’s card. Tony Hotchkiss stormed out the blocks 8-1 but Rob Adams closed it to 9 across and led 15-13 before Tony ran out on this 35 m diagonally over the crown to give Hanwood a lead of 23 off the first four.

Archie knew that they needed a quick response and with Alan Ball they did, as he played very well on this 30m round peg to lead Russ Wellings 13-4 and maintained this advantage to win 9 and close the gap to 11 and give Archie hope, and with them being well in the other games looked like they could close the gap further. But Hanwood’s joint captain Ash Wellings always led former Archie captain John Paddington after a good start on the shorter marks, but John played very well to close the gap as he extended the length but could never quite get ahead of Ash as he played out some stunning shots in the best game of the night and won 16. The other two games in the middle were being very close affairs with Dave Burton leading Ian MacDonald 12-10 and Nick Davies 14 across with Archie captain Dave Gourlay and could have gone either way. But Dave virtually ran out diagnonally over the middle to win 12 and Nick won 15 in the corners to give Hanwood a 28 shot lead going into the back four.

Hanwood knew that no bad cards meant they were taking their place in next season’s Premier League and so this materialised. Joint captain Mark Shore led the way leading Matt Benbow 15-6 in the corners but Danny Wornell was 14-1o down against Dave Ridgway with the other two games just started. As Mark led 19-10 and Danny 16 across , and with Carl Bowers 10-8 up and Phil Price 9-7 up, Hanwood only needed a few chalks to cement their place in 2016, and with Danny Wornell’s 2 and Mark Shore’s 1 a few minutes later they sealed the win. Mark came off winning 12 and Danny won 17 to start off the celebrations. Carl Bowers then edged out Jack Hewitt in a good quality game 19 and Steve Heath came back against Phil Price to get 17 and give Hanwood the biggest win ever in a Playoff match, beating the 44 shot win that Ford gained over Bylet back in 2001.

So the Flowfit Shropshire Premier Bowling League would like to welcome Hanwood back to the Premier league after an 19 year absence and offer commiserations to Archibald Worthington, one of our founder members back in 1994, and wish them all the best in their quest to get back into the league.

The league would like to thank Allscott bowling club for hosting the event so excellently, and to Roger Griffin for referring and Mike Potter for measuring and taking the pictures. There will be more pictures from Mike and his report will put on this site tomorrow night. I would also like to thank my Dad for helping update the scores on Facebook and Twitter for me as I didn’t have enough internet signal at Allscott.

Full scores:

1 LMarkham 12 v M Parsons 21

2 J Digby 7 v G Smith 21

3 G Fordham 21 v W Phillips 12

4 R Adams 15 v T Hotchkiss 21

5 J Paddington 16 v A Wellings 21

6 A Ball 21 v R Wellings 9

7 I Macdonald 12 v D Burton 21

8 D Gourlay 15 v N Davies 21

9 D Ridgway 17 v D Wornell 21

10 M Benbow 13 v M Shore 21

11 J Hewitt 19 v C Bowers 21

12 S Heath 17 v P Price 21

Archibald Worthington 185 Hanwood 231

 

Mike Potter has very kindly written a report and posted his pictures from the Playoff final which you can see below.

Shropshire Premier Bowling League – 2015 Playoff Final – played on the green of Allscott BC – Fri. 2nd Oct. 2015
Archibald Worthington Club v Hanwood

After recently defeating both Hanmer and Donnington Wood in pre playoff matches, Hanwood hoped for better luck in the pursuit of securing a much desired place in the elite league of the county at the expense of their north Shropshire opponents, AWC who were determined not to give up that place without a fight as the two teams and a 300+ crowd gathered at Allscott BC on a cool early October evening

Highlights of the match

Hanwood knew they needed to start well and were quick off the mark and dominate the first four games with the exception of AWC’s Greg Fordham 21-12 win helping to reduce Hanwood’s advantage to +20.

Mark Parsons from having a 9-2 lead over Les Markham had to endure a fight back to see his lead cut to 12-9 before again pulling away to 19-11 and soon finished 21-12. Early exchanges between Greg Smith and John Digby were even before Greg from 4-3 made a 10 shot run to race to 14-3 and it was only a couple of double score ends by John that punctuated that run as Greg ended the game 21-7. Greg Fordham was in blistering form on a 21 metre mark as he went 11-1 & 18-3 until Wayne Phillips eventually wrestled the jack and stretched into the corners and clawed his way into double figures before Greg eventually got out 21-12. Tony Hotchkiss saw his 8-1 lead turn into a deficit of 9-12 by Rob Adams until Tony regained control and from 15-15 ran out winning 21-15.

AWC 55 – 75 Hanwood +20
Hanwood pushed on in the middle by taking three games and extend their lead to +28

Ashley Wellings started strongly to go 8-1 up and maintained his lead to 13-6 before John Paddington hit back and near tie the score only for Ashley from 17-16 run out to win 21-16. AWC’s Alan Ball took control against a luckless Russ Wellings as Alan went from 9-1 to 15-4 and despite a mini Raleigh to more than double his score Alan secured his team’s second winner 21-9From even beginnings of 3-3 and 7-7 Dave Burton gained the upper hand over Ian McDonald to edge in front and from 13-11 nearly completed a run out as he fininshed 21-12 In another evenly matched game, Nick Davies & Dave Gourley went down the card 6-6, 11-11 and 14-14 until Nick seized his chance to and finished the game 21-15.

AWC 119 – 147 Hanwood +28

Firmly with the bit between their teeth, Hanwood were soon on the brink and with the back four still on the green and all holding their own, the result and their subsequent victory was soon confirmed winning 10 of the games and by +46

Dan Wornell saw an early 7-4 lead wiped out as Dave Ridgeway took 14-10 before Dan hit back to level at 16-16 and then went on to almost runout recording a 21-17card. Mark Shore led Matt Benbow throughout as he went from 7-3 to 11-4 and from 15-5 managed to maintain his 10 shot advantage to 19-9 before eventual finishing 21-13 After trailing 5-8, Carl Bowers ran into a 14-9 lead only to lose it again as Jack Hewitt responded to take the scores on to 16-14 and the lead changed yet again before Jack levelled at 19-19 only for Carl to win 21-19. Phil Price turned an 8-7 lead over Steve Heath into 15-8 and 18-12 but then Steve hit back to almost level at 18-17 before Phil ended the game 21-17.

AWC 185 – 231 Hanwood +46

Winning Hanwood Team

Back from left: Phil Talbot, Phil J Price, Mark Parsons (joint captain) , Dave Burton, Nick Davies, Dan Wornell, Wayne Phillips & Tony Hotchkiss.

Front from left: Mark Shore and Ash Wellings (joint captains), Kian Parsons, Rhys Marshall, Russ Wellings, Dave Payne, Greg Smith & Carl Bowers.

Archibald Worthington 

Back from left: Dave Ridgway, Matt Benbow, Les Markham, Jack Hewitt, John Paddington, John Digby & Ian MacDonald.

Front from left: Rob Adams, Greg Fordham, Dave Gourlay (captain), Steve Heath & Alan Ball.

Captains Mark Shore from Hanwood and Dave Gourlay from Archie shake hands before the game.

Joint Hanwood captains Mark Shore, Mark Parsons and Ash Wellings are all smiles after the game, pictured with league president Tom Roden.

 

Here are some pictures I took over the course of the night. Not the best quality but still good nevertheless.

 

After all the celebrations at the Cock Inn on Friday night from the Hanwood players and supporters had quietened down joint captain Mark Shore has kindly sent me some comments about their win on Friday.

“I firstly offer my heartfelt commiserations to AWC. They are a great bunch and we fully understand the pain of losing in such an important game. I sincerely hope they regroup and come back. That said the whole of Hanwood BC are over the moon to have finally made it back to the Premier League and we hope to be as competitive as possible upon our return. Our goal at the moment will be to ensure we don’t have to play on the first Friday of October next season.

I like to thank the officials of Allscott BC for preparing a great surface for the big game. And the officers of the league for their great organisation of the evening. Finally to Roger Griffin for refereeing the game in a competent and fair manner.

The match itself was a great spectacle and advert for our game. My first four did their job yet again to set us up perfectly for the rest of the evening. Greg Smith displayed his obvious quality but Mark Parsons and Tony Hotchkiss also put in massive performances for the team. However, in the front four I have to single out Wayne Phillips. As a team we all thought Greg Fordham played exceptionally well to lead Wayne 18-3, given last years playoff defeat Wayne suffered to Rich Morris and despite the directed and sometimes unpleasant shouts he received on Friday he dug in and battled to get 12. This show of sheer guts and determination and definitely inspired the rest of the team to push on. Had he come off 3 the atmosphere and attitude could of been different.

Into the middle four and Ash Wellings and John Paddington produced possibly the best game of the night with some high quality bowling, Ash showing real grit to win his game. Alan Ball for AWC put in a great performance and really gave Russ Wellings little room. Dave Burton and Nick Davies fought real tight games early on with some quality bowling but both pushed on later in the game to seal important victories.

I have little knowledge of how Danny Carl and Phil played in the back as I was playing also but from the calls I heard I knew they were doing ok. In my game I was in control all the way I just knew if I got off we would have sealed promotion and so it was to be the case.

Hanwood’s success this year has been built on a squad of 16 players who have supported each other and rotated in and out of the team to ensure we had a strong squad for the playoffs the four none players on Friday are as much of the success as those who played and I thank David Payne, Phil Lyttle, Steve France and Phil Talbot for their support and input through the season. Also a special mention for our card markers in particular the younger supporters Kian Parsons Rhys Marshall and Kiana Jones.

7 years ago Dave Burton said to Phil Talbot ‘I’m going to take over the running of the green. I’m going to make it a superb surface and attract players to the club and get us back into the Premier.’ These two have done so much for Hanwood BC over the years and I see no more fitting tribute to them both in dedicating Friday’s success to Dave and Phil. Finally the eggs are hard boiled and not for cracking. See you all next year. We cannot wait.”

I think the whole of the league will be looking forward to tackling a new team and a new green for many in Hanwood too, but will also miss visiting and playing the Archie lads. Before that though, I think will be an eventful and interesting Winter to come…