Taylor Support Shropshire Premier Bowls League
St Georges face tough Burway trip, 2nd & 3rd meet, Chasing Pack look to close gap
The leaders of the Flowfit Shropshire Premier Bowling League, St Georges, face a tough trip to Burway in week 16. Burway are a tough team to beat at home, with only Meole winning there this season, but stand in captain for Burway, Merit Champion Wayne Rogers, reckons that St Georges won’t be caught. “They are my pick for the title with the experience they’ve got and the settled side led by Tony Rhodes and Glyn Picknell, they’re very solid. It’s going to be very hard. We’re not playing well and they’re coming with a lot of confidence. But we’ll do our best.” St Georges have scored 5 there the last two years and a similar result would keep them up the top end of the table as 2nd meets 3rd as Sir John Bayley play Meole Brace. Since the home defeat to Chester Road, the Bayley have won 4 on the bounce to move up to one point off the lead, but Meole Brace have also hit form after winning their first trophy two weeks ago, and Captain Spencer Clarke knows that this means “we are facing a buoyant and in form Meole side who are playing with confidence. However our results have picked up in recent weeks, the team is playing well and momentum is finally building so we will be looking to match their result against us earlier in the season and keep ourselves in the mix. Either way it should be a cracker!” Meole skipper Mark Thomas faces “another trip to Wellington to play the Bayley, a form team who are above us in the league. We are expecting a tough night as they have a strong home side, our away performances have been good of late and we are hoping for a decent return.”
Chester Road, who led the table in week 14, aim to catch the top three as they host Wrockwardine Wood. Chester Road have won their last two home games 13-1, and despite Wrockwardine’s poor record there, even though they did win there in 2007, they will be hard pressed to do so as the Wrockites have hit some form. They got 4 at Newport and Wem USC in their last two away games, coupled with two good home wins, means they are starting to move up the table. Ifton are another team who will be looking for a big home win as they host Hadley USC, who have scored only 8 wins there over the last three years. Hadley though have moved up to one point behind the Bylet after their 12-2 win over Wem USC last week, so will be looking to get as many points away as they can from this and the next two before they face the Bylet at home. Bylet will also have their work cut out as they travel to Bowring, however they did have two County Players practising the green in recent weeks in Scott Harries and Rob Steventon. Bowring will be looking to bounce back from only scraping a draw against Meole Brace last home game and look to get back to their good home form like the 13-1 win over Hadley USC and 10-4 over St Georges.
Castlefields have still yet to get going but will be hopeful their green knowledge will help them gain a good result at Wem USC. Joint captain Andy Judson is “hoping for a good result there hopefully picking up four or five winners against a rejuvenated Wem team, but it won’t be easy given their recent home form.” Wem have been great at home since their opening defeat to Hadley, scoring double figures in all but one of their home games since, but skipper Mike Dulson knows “it is going to be a tough fixture for us. Half of their side have practised the green for the county game a few weeks ago and four of their team played the green again in the Whitchurch League over the last couple of weeks. After a disappointing performance last week (just 2 at Hadley USC) I need our players to step up and show the form we had in May and June.” The Champions Newport have been improving their home results but still have yet to hit the excellent home form of recent seasons and with visitors Hanwood a team in good form they could struggle to. Hanwood got 5 at Castlefields and 7 at Wrockwardine Wood in recent away games but still know Newport are still a decent team, especially on their own patch.
Week 16 Fixtures:
Newport v Hanwood
Bowring v Bylet
Ifton v Hadley USC
Wem USC v Castlefields
Burway v St Georges
Sir John Bayley v Meole Brace
Chester Road v Wrockwardine Wood