Taylor Support Shropshire Premier Bowls League
Old foes battle, Bayley face Bylet test, Wem look to bounce back
Two of the most successful teams battle it out in Gameweek 3 of the Salop Leisure Shropshire Premier Bowling League. St Georges take on Castlefields with no love lost between the two rivals, and promises to be a competitive meeting on the top green. Home joint captain Ian Gaut knows “Castlefields are a great club but it’s just another home game for us. We usually do pretty well against them at home and we are looking forward to trying to get a win. We finished 4th last year and won the County Cup so we are generally in with a shout of winning things, though I’m not saying we are going to win the league. But if you can get some momentum then who knows what can happen.” Castlefields skipper Alan Peach knows it is a “tough game against top opposition. It is always a very hard game against our old rivals for many of years. They got a very good 5 at Newport last Friday so we will be giving them the respect they deserve. My belief is if you can get 4 or maybe 5 at any away green then you have done well. We are at full strength so here’s hoping!” The game will be a special one for Keith Walton who will become the first player in the league to play 600 games!
Sir John Bayley will look to succeed where fellow title challengers Hanwood failed by winning at Bylet. Bylet got a great 9-5 win which could have been much more and know they face a tough test from the Bayley who have won there the last four years. But Bylet have now got a good young team and will relish the challenge the Bayley present, however the Bayley know how precious away wins are going to be and will want to put down a marker. Hanwood themselves will want to bounce back but face an Ifton side that were the only team that won there last season. Ifton will be happy with their home win last week after their poor opening game but know away from home they need to improve. Newport are another team that were touted as title challengers but haven’t had the best of starts and face a trip to their bogey green in Chester Road. They also do it without captain Sam Millward, with Dave Rhodes stepping in as captain, and maybe a change of philosophy could kick start their season. Chester Road were unlucky to come away with just 4 winners last week at Ifton so captain Paul Fowles is “looking forward to a good game! The weather is getting better so green should be ok, we need to build on our steady start. We are still without Andy Moss which is a major blow but the other lads are responding well.”
Wem USC suffered a disappointing home loss last week so will look to bounce back and gain a similar result at Bowring like they did at St Georges in the first week. Captain Scott Thomas admits “we were disappointed to start our home campaign with a narrow loss but Wrockwardine Wood played our green very well on a night that suited the away sides. As for tomorrow, we are looking forward to the challenge of playing a good young side, and hope to score more than we got last year. We thought we played really well there last year and were unlucky not to score at least two more points. So we’ll look to do exactly that, improve by a couple of points and be as competitive as possible.” Bowring will also consider themselves unlucky not to have got more winners at Castlefields last week and know if they are to have another top 6 finish they need to produce big wins at home. Wrockwardine Wood will want to build on that away win but face a trip to the other in form side Burway. They did win there in 2015 when under the leadership of now captain Stuart Clee but it would be a big ask to do so again. Burway hammered Ifton 13-1 in their first home game and will want another big home win to continue their good start. Meole Brace are bottom of the table and know they need to produce a good win over Hanmer to make sure they don’t get cut adrift early in the season. But Hanmer won there last season, and showed in their narrow loss at Chester Road they are a much improved away side now than the start of last season, so it could go either way.
Gameweek 3 Fixtures:
St Georges v Castlefields
Bylet v Sir John Bayley
Burway v Wrockwardine Wood
Bowring v Wem USC
Chester Road v Newport
Hanwood v Ifton
Meole Brace v Hanmer