Week 1 Review

Ifton get perfect start against newcomers, Hadley and St Georges earn away wins

There were some interesting results in Week 1 of the Flowfit Shropshire Premier Bowling League as Hanwood received a baptism of fire in their return in the league, not getting a single winner away at Ifton and losing by 118. Ifton had 6 single figure winners, returning signing Martin Jones the best winning 7, with Carl Roberts earning MVP winning 8. For Hanwood the best card was Phil Lyttle 20, earning him MVP. The shock of the night was Hadley USC winning at Wem USC 8-6 and by 7 shots. Wem USC have got the green back to its best but maybe this caught them out as they suffered only their second home defeat in three seasons. They went 3-1 up with Mike Dulson being best winner 11 as Dave Price won 12 to reply for the visitors. The middle four was shared, Colin Smith winning MVP for the hosts winning 13 on a big round peg as they went 11 up. Then John Potter won 9 to be best winner as the visitors edged ahead before Steve Homer won 14, despite George Williams fighting back from 18-5, to put them 8 ahead. But Neil Boxall led Nick Mullinder 18-8 and Derek Wright was 13-9 up on John Newey for the home side. But Nick won the block and ran 12 in the corners before winning 20 to seal the aggregate for the Huskies and earn MVP. Derek Wright beat John Newey 19 to share the games but it was Hadley who took the extra two points home. Captain Rob Burroughs “was thrilled at such a great performance on a sharp Wem USC green. The green will only get trickier and the players will only get better with practice and more games on a superb surface, the Groundsman has done wonders on there! We were awesome from 1-12 on and off the green, every player played well and contributed, Nick Mullinder leading by example showing great fighting spirit when he looked out of his game to come back and seal the aggregate for us. But there’s no losers in a winning team and we need to match this standard every game now, as there 25 more tough ones to come!”

St Georges put on a eye catching performance away at Chester Road winning 10-4, pleasing captain Tony Rhodes. “We had a great start to the season. I said in the preview that the winner will be who put the time in and I believe it showed. Green was soft and heavy so suited us and Martin Lloyd said it was about 3 weeks behind and it showed. There were great wins for Nige Evans (17 and MVP), Andy Morgan and Paul Beer (joint best winner with Glyn Picknell 10). Lewis Scott just missed out but played well, while Simon Madeley played very well against the ever classy Andy Moss (won 9 and MVP). So all in all a good time to go there but we made it count.” Best winner for Chester Road was Paul Williams 8. Another dark horse and title contender Sir John Bayley produced a good performance to beat Bylet 11-3. Home captain Spencer Clarke praised the green as “it ran well and played nice. It was a solid start, so happy with both performance and result. It’s very early season so just pleased to get through 1st game unscathed. Bylet fully deserved their 3 winners, Andy James battling back from 20-13 down to win (and MVP). I thought Gary Cooper caught the eye for us versus Scott Harries. Overall a solid start but we have difficult away games coming up, starting with Meole Brace next week.” Best winner and MVP for the Bayley was Paul Evans 2, while Jamie Taylor won 11 for the away side to be best winner. Burway reversed their scoreline against Wrockwardine Wood last season to win 10-4. The home side will be happier though after taking the whole of the back four. Best winner for the home side was Kiah Roberts 3 earning him MVP and for the visitors was Stuart Rutter 6 also earning him MVP.

The other two games were postponed as concessions