Taylor Support Shropshire Premier Bowls League
Newport grab first win, Meole continue good form
Champions Newport earned their first week of the season with a 11-3 home win over Burway. Burway though will be happy with scoring one more than the previous two seasons and could have more with Ben Allen losing 20 against Dave Rhodes and Len Lewis 19 against Mark Selley. New Newport signing Jamie King marked his home debut with the joint best win 6, but Chris Grocott won 6 too and the MVP award as a late replacement for the ill Kevin Keary. Best Winner and MVP for Burway was Mark Rogers with a fine 21-12 win other Alan Davidson, with Wayne Rogers 21-17 and Kev Dovey 21-18 also winning for the Ludlow side.
Meole Brace continued their good form with a solid 11-3 home win over Wrockwardine Wood. A tough front four saw Meole lead 3-1 which could have easily been 3-1 to Wrockwardine Wood according to home captain Mark Thomas. Colin Beaman and Darren Wellings won to 16 and Will Tarrell to 18 but late call up Josh Cotton, in for the sick Steve Broome, had a fine win beating Ade Rowe 14. But Wrockwardine fought back in the middle with two winners to tie up the aggregate going into the back four. Andrew Jones grabbed the MVP award and best win winning 8, whilst away skipper Stuart Clee continued his fine early season form winning 15. But Meole took the whole of the back four with Craig Wilson the best winner and MVP winning 6 and new signing Doug Edwards winning 9.
St Georges grabbed a great 6 away at Sir John Bayley which according to away captain Tony Rhodes “cannot be sneered at but it was disappointing to a degree as there were opportunities to win the game.” The front four were shared with Dave King and Jim Kellett described as “excellent” by Tony as they beat former averages winner Alex Jones 15 and Steve Burroughs 18, with Jim winning the MVP award. But an “excellent” Spencer Clarke earned the MVP award in beating “the classy” Nige Evans 11 and Paul Evans “class showed” despite Andy James “playing really well”. In the middle Norman Harvey swung the aggregate for SJB winning 7 with the Bayley taking 3 out of the 4 games. But St Georges dug deep and took three out of the back four with Alan Palin, Tony Rhodes and Keith Anderson all winning, which could have been all four had Paul Reeves not come back from 16-10 to win 18. But with the Bayley without skipper Tom Roden, Aaron Tapper and Scott Simpson Bayley spokesman Sam Plant was “happy with the fine display of determination and battle from the Bayley which could have resulted in more winners if St Georges had not dropped on the difficult weight and had not shown fine bowling in the closing stages of their game.”
2 out of the 3 players who moved from Wem USC to Castlefields over the Winter won on their return but wasn’t enough to prevent Wem USC producing an excellent 9-5 win. Luke Jones won 8 and Andy Judson 15 but Callum Wraight got 17 off Fred Bailey. Paul Williams earned his second MVP on the trot in winning 14 for the Fields but Colin Smith’s 8 win and Stuart Bailey MVP 9 win over recent competition winner Rich Goddard earned Wem USC the aggregate by 8.
Hadley USC produced an awesome performance in beating Archibald Worthington 13-1 on a quick green. Hadley, under vice captain Rob Burroughs with captain Phil King looking on with crutches, never looked back after taking the first 8, with Nick Mullinder sharing the coppers with Ash Gregory in both winning 7, with Ash taking the MVP award after racing 17-0 up over the middle. Anthony Heath saved Archie from the whitewash in beating John Newey 15 from 13-10 down, although Nigel Ashley took John Price all the way in getting 18.
Bylet will be very happy with their 5 at Ifton. Away captain Mick Harries led by example winning 13 to take the best win and MVP. Rob Steventon continued his fine form with another win and Rob Renke, Russell Morris and Tim Ealey gave Bylet a great away result. Geraint Williams took the home best win and MVP winning 6, with Keiron Roberts just behind winning 7.
Chester Road gained their first win of the season with a 10-4 victory over Bowring. Away vice captain Rob Roden gained a fine win and the MVP award beating former County Merit winner Martin Lloyd 18, with captain Rich Lawson also winning to 16. Dave Lloyd was best winner winning 14 with Brian Jarvis 18 completing Bowring’s four. Chester Road had 4 single figure winners in Andy Moss, Paul Griffiths, Mark Burdon, who won another MVP, and Paul Latham, who continued his good form winning 1.
This all means that Meole Brace lead the table by 8 points, with only one point separating 6 teams from 2nd to 7th. Bylet prop up the table, 4 points behind Archibald Worthington but with a game in hand at Newport, which I believe is being played this Wednesday, which if Newport gain 9 points or more will move them to 2nd in the table.
| Won | Agg | Pts | Home Team | Premier | Away Team | Pts | Agg | Won | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 232 | 9 | Ifton | V | Bylet | 5 | 199 | 5 | ||||
| 7 | 212 | 9 | Wem U S C | V | Castlefields | 5 | 204 | 5 | ||||
| 6 | 231 | 8 | Sir J Bayley | V | St George’s | 6 | 207 | 6 | ||||
| 9 | 236 | 11 | Newport | V | Burway | 3 | 173 | 3 | ||||
| 11 | 246 | 13 | Hadley U S C | V | Archibald Worthington | 1 | 151 | 1 | ||||
| 9 | 226 | 11 | Meole Brace | V | Wrockwardine Wood | 3 | 189 | 3 | ||||
| 8 | 234 | 10 | Chester Road | V | Bowring | 4 | 168 | 4 |