The 1st round of the Barlows Fire & Security Alan Mayhew Trophy takes place tonight. Unfortunately Hadley USC have had to withdraw because of green unavailability and unable to field a team on an alternative night. The other 7 games are previewed below:<\/p>\n
Ludlow Castle v Burway<\/strong><\/p>\n A first ever Ludlow Derby in the league features last year’s playoff participants Ludlow Castle up against neighbours Burway. Burway have done well in this competition in the past, reaching the final in 2015, and will be favourites against their Tanners rivals. But this is a cup game with local rivalry! Ludlow Castle captain Simon Lane says “Ludlow Castle are grateful for the invitation to play in the Alan Mayhew, we have no expectations of winning the tie but we thought it was worth taking the opportunity to have a competitive game against premier league opposition. It will give us an understanding of where we are in comparison to a seasoned premier league side as well as having an enjoyable evening against our local rivals.”<\/p>\n Hanwood v Ifton<\/strong><\/p>\n These two teams met last week on Ifton, so the holders Hanwood will have an advantage there. Ifton won on Hanwood last season, and after their run to the Semi Finals of the KGJ Insurance County Cup, will look for one in this competition that they won back in 2009. Hanwood won this last season, and won’t want to relinquish it as they look to defend it successfully for the first time since Newport did it in 2014 and 2015.<\/p>\n Wrockwardine Wood v Bylet<\/strong><\/p>\n Both teams have never won this competition, with Wrockwardine Wood having been in a two finals over 15 years ago. Both teams have had excellent seasons so far, with Bylet getting better as it goes on and Wrockwardine back to the form they had early in the season. Bylet skipper Scott Harries comments “we enter the Alan Mayhew hoping for another Cup run this season. We are in the Semi Finals of the Harris Cup and going well in the league so it’d be good to keep the momentum going. We’ve had 2 good battles in the league with the Wrock men so I’m expecting another tussle. It’s always tough fielding a full side midweek so we are a few missing but apparently so are the Wrockites according to Stu Clee unless he’s pulling my leg. Win, then great, lose, then we can focus on the bread and butter of\u00a0Fridays<\/span><\/span>\u00a0and our Semi Final.”<\/p>\n Castlefields v St Georges<\/strong><\/p>\n The tie of the round sees two 6 time winners of this competition play each other, but both will look for their first success in over 5 years. St Georges captain Ian Gaut says it is an “interesting tie between teams that played one another just two weeks ago. Greens will have changed since then so the make up of players at each leg will be crucial. Bound to be a good match, probably a close affair, but looking forward locking horns with an old foe.” Castlefields stand in skipper Graham Rogers admits as the draw went it couldn’t have got much more difficult really against our old rivals. When they played on the Fields a couple of weeks ago some of their players played it excellently and had 4 winners. Mike Beer had to play out of his skin to beat Ian Gaut in the end but we also had a good result at their place earlier in the season. This is a cup game though and any thing can happen home & away we will be all out to win of course and progress to next round but I predict a close game either way.”<\/p>\n Newport v Wem USC<\/strong><\/p>\n Newport will be hoping to replicate their league form in this competition and win it for the first time since 2015. Wem USC though have struggled at home but been excellent away, culminating in a draw at Burway on Friday. Skipper Scott Thomas admits “we\u00a0face the toughest of tests\u00a0tomorrow<\/span><\/span>\u00a0night, so our first task is to be competitive and give them a game. If we can keep it close, you never know what might happen but we\u2019re under no illusions about just how tough it\u2019s going to be.”<\/p>\n SJB v Bowring<\/strong><\/p>\n The Haygate Road derby features two teams who are missing key players from their side, so strength in depth will be key. The Bayley got 6 on the Bowring in the opening game but the Bowring had experience of the Bayley green a few weeks ago, however did only get 2 winners. It promises to be a close encounter between the two, with Wellington bragging rights up for grabs!<\/p>\n Chester Road v Hanmer<\/strong><\/p>\n Hanmer had the best of these two teams last season with two wins, but Chester Road had the best this season with two wins themselves, including a massive 11-5 win at Hanmer a few weeks ago. Chester Road though generally have struggled at home, while Hanmer have struggled away, so the leg at Chester Road could go either way. Hanmer captain Dave Ellison comments “a local derby against our arch rivals is maybe a good thing considering our league position and some extra match practice for our 6 home players before Hanwood\u00a0on Friday<\/span><\/span>\u00a0night.I expect a tight game and we will be going all out to make the quarter finals.” Chester Road are former winners of this event, and di reach the Semi Finals last season, so will hope to get one better this year!<\/p>\n Meole Brace walkover against Hadley USC<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n A reminder that dress code applies!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The 1st round of the Barlows Fire & Security Alan Mayhew Trophy takes place tonight. Unfortunately Hadley USC have had to withdraw because of green unavailability and unable to field a team on an alternative night. The other 7 games are previewed below: Ludlow Castle v Burway A first ever Ludlow Derby in the league …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[113,38],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5VaGi-2rq","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thespbl.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9388"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thespbl.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thespbl.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thespbl.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thespbl.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9388"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thespbl.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9389,"href":"https:\/\/www.thespbl.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9388\/revisions\/9389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thespbl.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thespbl.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thespbl.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}