Gameweek 10 Review

Meole back in form, Hanwood write wrongs, Burway, Bayley and Newport win away

Meole Brace are back in form after two poor results by beating Chester Road 13-1 in Gameweek 10 of the Salop Leisure Shropshire Premier Bowling League. They overcame the poor weather to bang in a good home win, a similar result to what they did last year against the same opposition. Captain Pete Bound commented “considering the weather on the night it was a good performance. We had a bad night the week before against St Georges so it was important to get back on track. We are still in the mix and team spirit is spot on.” The only single figure game was Pete Bound himself winning 5, while the only winner for the visitors was Martin Lloyd winning 14. They closed the gap on Castlefields to 4 points after they beat Wrockwardine Wood 10-4. Mark Taylor was their best winner 5 while another Mark, Picknell, was best for the visitors, winning 4. Sir John Bayley kept up with the leaders with their own 10-4 win at Bylet, recovering from 3-1 down. Skipper Tom Roden said “It was another good performance by us. Especially after going 3-1 down. Chris Ward was brilliant in the front to win 8 and the other lads battled well to keep the shots tight. We won 3 from middle, Ant Bracken being the stand out performer having never played Bylet before. Our back 4 have been superb so far this season and we managed to take all 4 games quite comfortably. Bylet are a much improved side this year so we’re happy to have gone there and won even if weather condition favoured us.” Best winner for the Bylet was Rob Fuller 14 while Spencer Clarke returned from holiday and was best winner 21-7 for the Bayley boys.

Burway also earned an away win with a shock 9-5 win at Bowring, their first home loss for about two years, after coming from 5-3 and 39 down. Skipper Chris Dovey explains “the conditions weren’t great at the start of the night but probably helped us have a great start with Pete Griffiths going back to the Bowring for the first time and beating Rich Lawson. Then managed to get my own game out 21-20 with a great performance by Lenny the Lion Lewis. Kiah Roberts, Kev Dovey, Nick Lewis all won 9 (to be best winners) then a great performance from Adam Dovey winning 15 against Jamie King.” Best winner for the Bowring was Josh Bradburn 5. Newport also won away from home for the second time this season with a 9-5 win at Wem USC, this time having 7 winners with the aggregate, which they had lost last year. Captain Mick Jones had “told his players they could win there at the start of the match and they proved me right. The weather helped us but it was still a good win.” Peter Farmer led the way with a 21-4 best win, while Colin Smith was best for the home side 11.

Hanwood put right the one wrong of last season when they narrowly lost at Ifton with 6 winners. Joint captain Mark Shore said “a great performance by the lads Friday night. To get 6 points and improve the agg by over 100 chalks from last season shows how far we have come in the Premier League. However that said we walked away slightly frustrated we didn’t take the win as we were on the verge of winning the game. Normally I would pick out players who performed well but from 1-12 the team battled really hard.” Ifton were thankful for Leighton Roberts’ best win of 9 while for the visitors Dave Burton and Tony Hotchkiss were best winning 8. St Georges will be happy with their 5 at Hanmer, especially given 4 of them were 18 or above winners. Only Lewis Scott won less than 18, winning 12, while for the home side best winner was Jack Hewitt 7.

Castlefields lead by 4 points to Meole Brace, with a further 4 points down to Sir John Bayley in third. Bylet and Chester Road are bottom on 57 points. Paul Reeves now leads the League Averages by 4 to Callum Wraight.