{"id":9567,"date":"2018-09-21T12:41:37","date_gmt":"2018-09-21T11:41:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thespbl.co.uk\/news\/?p=9567"},"modified":"2018-09-21T12:41:37","modified_gmt":"2018-09-21T11:41:37","slug":"gameweek-26-preview-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thespbl.co.uk\/news\/?p=9567","title":{"rendered":"Gameweek 26 Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Battle for fourth & eight main fights, Newport favourites for second<\/strong><\/p>\n

The title and bottom spot may have already been decided but the battle for 4th and 8th are the main fights in Gameweek 26 of the Salop Leisure Shropshire Premier Bowling League. Only one points separates 4th to 6th, with St Georges a point ahead of Hanwood and Wrockwardine Wood. Hanwood though will be favourites with a home game to come against Meole Brace, with St Georges and Wrockwardine on their travels to Ifton and Castlefields respectively. Joint captain Mark Shore is hopeful “with the other two teams having away fixtures, I think we should get enough points at home. The biggest problem is, with St Georges being away they can get an extra two points so it could be a 14-0 wouldn’t be enough for us. But I think it is pretty much on our own hands. After finishing 5th and 6th the last two seasons, I think we are much better off points wise this season, but the top three have moved up a level. Meole Brace have a couple of players who know our green well. We’re friends with them and will share a beer afterwards. Our frustration has been our away form, we can’t seem to get that elusive win. We can’t quite crack that where other teams, even outside the top three, have won one, two or three away games. That’s something to ponder, but I have been really pleased with the team this year.” Meole Brace are currently 13th and are winless since July, so know they will need a decent points haul if they are to move up a position. St Georges travel to Ifton who are in that gaggle of teams fighting for 8th place, and know a good home win could get them at the top of those teams. St Georges have done well second half of the season to be in with a chance of 4th place going into the last game, after some poor home form cost them in the 1st half. Joint skipper Ian Gaut comments “it was obvious we weren’t going to end in the top three so it has been our target since halfway through the season. Hanwood are at home so I think they will probably do enough. But we are looking to go to Ifton and get something, whether it’s a win or four or five winners. It’s a place where we have won before so we will go and get what we can. It’s been a good season when you take into account we have been without players such as Glyn Picknell.” Wrockwardine Wood travel to Castlefields, who are on a 12 match winning run and will be in no mood to let up ahead of the Pool A.<\/p>\n

Newport are six points ahead of Sir John Bayley and would normally expect to finish there given they are at home to Wem USC. But Wem have been a different animal away this season, being unbeaten in their last four away games, so could give them a test. Wem should finish in 7th place, given that they finished bottom last season marks a remarkable upturn in form and should be rewarded with the most improved team. Captain Scott Thomas comments “we’ve enjoyed some fantastic away results during the second half of the season, and we just hope to end the season with a good performance at Newport. We’ll fight for every point we can get against a top class team. My team have been great this year, and credit goes to all of them. The turn around from last has been fantastic” We want to enjoy the last game of the campaign and hope to build on this season and start challenging the top order next year!” Sir John Bayley will hope to take advantage of any slip from Newport as they enterain Chester Road. Chester Road though are in 8th and would be wanting to stay there, and did win at the Bayley two seasons ago. Skipper Paul Fowles says we “hope to get as many points as possible to finish as high as we can. We are playing well but we know we face a hard game playing a top team.” The Bayley had a good 11-5 win last week and will look to build on that. Bowring find themselves in the unfamiliar place of 12th, and will need a decent points haul at bottom side Hanmer if they are to avoid their worse ever finish in a season. Hanmer will have eyes elsewhere ahead of the playoffs but will want some form going into them. Bylet will be looking to get their best ever place in a season as they host Burway, who themselves know they could finish in their worse placing if they don’t get a good away haul.<\/p>\n

Gameweek 26 Fixtures:<\/p>\n

Castlefields v Wrockwardine Wood<\/p>\n

Newport v Wem USC<\/p>\n

Sir John Bayley v Chester Road<\/p>\n

Hanwood v Meole Brace<\/p>\n

Ifton v St Georges<\/p>\n

Bylet v Burway<\/p>\n

Hanmer v Bowring<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Battle for fourth & eight main fights, Newport favourites for second The title and bottom spot may have already been decided but the battle for 4th and 8th are the main fights in Gameweek 26 of the Salop Leisure Shropshire Premier Bowling League. Only one points separates 4th to 6th, with St Georges a point …<\/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-2uj","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thespbl.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9567"}],"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=9567"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thespbl.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9569,"href":"https:\/\/www.thespbl.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9567\/revisions\/9569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thespbl.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thespbl.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thespbl.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}