Taylor Support Shropshire Premier Bowls League
The second of possibly three pre-playoffs take places Wednesday night between Mid-Shropshire Champions Donnington Wood and Tanners Shropshire League Champions Hanwood at Archibald Worthington’s Premier League green at 7 p.m. Hanwood come off having beaten Hanmer in the first pre-playoff by 9 chalks, and know that if they win this game they will face Archibald Worthington in the final. Joint captain Mark Shore comments “tomorrow we face up to a slightly unknown quantity in Donnington Wood. We all know the great name and history of the club but the new crop are unknown to us. What my research has told me is that they are a gritty, determined, passionate and vocal team. Like every game myself and fellow joint captains Ash Wellings and Mark Parsons will be reminding our players of the threat to our ambitions this side hold for us. And as such we respect them highly as the champions of Mid Shropshire. The Hanwood team have kept busy in 12 days since the Hanmer game with very competitive internal competition and completing fixtures in other leagues and competitions. I am confident that my team remain sharp and focused on job in hand. Unlike the Hanmer game I cannot call the result and I predict a close noisy and entertaining game. I hope my players’ experience will contribute to us reaching the final. On a personal note I would like publicly congratulate my friend and former team mate Chris Worthington on a magnificent season on leading his team to the Mid Shropshire title and earning this opportunity.”
This is Donnington Wood’s first attempt at getting back into the Premier League after being relegated back in 2008, and captain Chris Worthington is looking forward to having a crack at getting back. “We’ve suffered the worst (getting embarassed by Adderley by 81 in the Consolation Cup Final) and the best (winning the league fir the 1st time in 24 years) this season. Both experiences have set us up for whatever happens on Wednesday night. Regardless of the result the lads have done Donnington proud, loads of people wrote us off at the start of the season and I’m grateful for that because I’ve won lots of bets from it! So I just hope people keep writing us off! We also need to be keep in mind of Hanmer as everybody seems to be talking about this game with Hanwood as the team who will go to the final, but Hanmer aren’t out of it yet and are a very strong side who can yet still go through themselves. I would just like to dedicate our league win to Dave “Nirka” Martin.”
If Hanwood win the game Wednesday, then they will go on to play Archibald Worthington on Friday 2nd October at Allscott. If it is a draw or Donnington Wood win they will go onto play Hanmer at Meole Brace Non-Premier green on Thursday 1st October. Then if Hanmer or Donnington Wood finish top of the round-robin group they will play Archie at Reman.
I will again try to update the scores from this game on Facebook and Twitter groups.