Week 13 Review

Highley win away again, Hanmer so close to victory, Wrockites beat Fields 

Highley won their third away game already this season as they won at Chester Road 11-5 in week 13 of the Salop Leisure Shropshire Premier Bowling League. Joint captain Ben Dixon said “it came from absolutely nowhere with us 5-2 and 28 shots down. They imploded and we took advantage. Only two of our players had seen their green before. Chester Road is a hard green so I thought it’d catch us out. We bounce back from last week, I wish we could play away every week! We’ve lost two at home and won three away. The home games we’ve had have been either barely playable or waterlogged. We do have a good team that travels well. Everyone keeps asking ‘what is going on at your club?’ If we had won our home games we’d probably be second.” Hanmer went so close to an away victory as they just lost by one chalk at Meole Brace. Skipper Dave Ellison commented on the match. “The first 4 saw us trail 3-1 with Jack Hewitt winning for us and Robin Bennett being edged out 18 in a high quality game with Julian Cooke. The middle 4 saw the match all level 4-4 with Matty Worden particularly impressive on his debut for us running out from 17-10 down. Tim Jordan also running out from 20-11 for Meole denied us all 4 winners. The back 4 saw us win 2 of the 3 games off and level the agg. This left Matt Beeston 20-16 up and lying a 3 inch wood only for Dougie Edwards to produce a worldie to break our hearts and run out to deny us an extra 5 points. Wednesday night is why we are so pleased to be back in this league. Even though the result went against us it was played in the right spirit against a great bunch of lads at Meole.” Dave and Jack were best winners 13, with Dave Redge best winner for the home side 10.

League leaders Newport won 10-4 against the Bylet with Pete Farmer best winner 5 and the returning player Scott Harries best winner for the visitors by the same score. Sir John Bayley gained a point though as they beat Hanwood 11-3. Norman Harvey was their best winner 7 with Phil Lyttle best winner for the visitors 11. St Georges lost a little ground as they only beat Wem USC 9-5. Wem skipper Scott Thomas said the team “were pleased with a very good performance away at St Georges on Wednesday. We were sniffing an away win after being 4 all off the first eight and a couple up on the agg. But ultimately we are pleased with the 5 that we got. I don’t normally single out anyone for praise but I thought George Williams was excellent against Pete Grimston in the front and Paul Gleave continued his good form to to be our best winner (10). The game was in a good spirit on a rare sunny evening!” Best winner for the Dragons was Martin Gaut 4. Castlefields lost further ground as they only got 4 winners at Wrockwardine Wood. They had players missing but the Wrockites did to. Martin Williams was best winner 7 with Adam Jones best for the Fields 11. Burway got themselves a good home win over Ifton 11-3. Captain Ben Allen was “Very very happy with the lads with our best home result so far this season. All the boys played very well. I thought Oliver Jones for Ifton played exceptionally well against Kev Dovey (to be best winner 6). Just the result we needed heading into the second half of the season before a couple of tough away games. Best winner for the home side was Chris Dovey 5.

Newport are 6 ahead of Sir John Bayley, but they have a game in hand, with St Georges a further four behind. Ifton are one behind Chester Road at the bottom of the table. Dave East still leads the League Averages and now the Most Consecutive Wins award after winning 10 on the bounce.