It has been a changing of the guard in the 2016 Season with Sir John Bayley getting their hands on their first ever title, winning the league by 5 points to Castlefields in a tight campaign, with only 22 points separating the top 8. St Georges earned their best finish since 2010 finishing 3rd, while Chester Road returned to former glories, finishing a whopping 42 points better off than in 2015, a remarkable improvement with little player movement. Hanwood though matched them, finishing their first season back in the league in 5th place, even after suffering a whitewash in their first game! The top two from the last four seasons both struggled after player losses over the Winter. Meole Brace finished 6th while Newport, champions of the last 5 years, finished in 9th place. Ifton, many people tips to go close to winning the league, finished in 7th place, just above Bowring despite their numerous signings. Burway finished in 10th, with Wrockwardine Wood struggling to match their 2015 efforts after losing players, finshing just below and Wem USC after a poor start finishing in 12th. Bylet finished just above Hadley USC in 13th with Hadley having to face the dreaded playoff. Hanmer and Donnington Wood were familiar teams in the playoffs, and Hanmer defeated their rivals by 13 to take on Hadley in their first ever final, and what a cracker it was. It went down to the last game, and Alan “Sammy” Faulkner won 13 to make the breakthrough for Hanmer, cueing delirious scenes of joy as seen here.

Andy Moss returned to the top of the League Averages and Most Consecutive Wins, winning 24 in total and 19 consecutively, a new record! Stuart Rutter won the most MVPs, quite possibly the last ever winner of this award! Josh Bradburn created history by winning the League Merit, beating Scott Simpson in the final, and winning the Mike Hinton Pairs with Stuart Clee, beating Nick Davies and Wayne Phillips in the final. Meole Brace won their first ever league silverware, beating arch rivals Castlefields in the final at Bicton, while Chester Road capped of a great season winning the Pool A and Ifton regained some pride by winning the Pool B for a record time after a disappointing season.

The league also won the Senior Inter League for the first ever time, beating the Ludlow League in the final at Wem USC. We gave prize money for the first time for our Fantasy Bowls and Predictions League, won by Matthew Rhodes and Jamie King respectively. We also got a new badge thanks to Stuart Clee and a new PA system thanks to Mike Potter, meaning the league is improving all the time.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our sponsors, Flowfit for sponsoring the league for a fourth year, Black Tech Ltd for the Alan Mayhew Trophy, BowlsTrader for the Pool competitions, GetBranded for the Merit, JB Detailing & Valeting for the pairs, to Mousepoint Design for the Fantasy League and White Apple Photography for the Predictions League. We appreciate the support you have given us this season! Also thank you to our venues we have used for our events this season; Bayston Hill, Bicton, Old Shrewsbury, Meole Brace and the Bowring, to our referees Mike Potter, Mike Caddick, Peter Jones and John Coxill for officiating our finals, and our trophy donors for supporting us once again! Thanks go to Mike Beckett for his use of the wonderful Results System and helping me to run the two leagues, Lee Bowden for maintaining this website, Malcolm Fletcher and Shropshire Star for their Press Coverage and our officials for helping run one of the best, if not the best, single Premier League. And a final well done to our 2016 winners!

We would like to wish all our players, sponsors and supporters all the very best in 2017. We are always looking at improving the league and here’s hoping the next season is even better!

2016 Hall of Fame