St Georges trail but early days says Mick

Mick Jones has the air of a man who is almost enjoying his side being off the pace in this year's Furrows Shropshire Premier League title race.

St Georges have almost cantered to the crown for the last two seasons with skipper Jones able to dictate matters from the top.

Now, after losing for the third time in four games on Friday at Ford, Jones & Co are actually in the bottom half of the table - 10 points behind joint leaders Chester Road and Wem USC.

While Ifton were pulling off the comeback of the night in winning at Sir John Bayley, St Georges were falling victim to the same kind of fate at the Cross Gates.Jones explained: "We were doing all right, it was 4-4 and we were 10 chalks up after eight. We had four county players going on but we could not hold on.

"In fact Ian Gaut was our only winner, but I have to say that Peter Bound of Ford did really well to beat Mel Evans.

"Mel was 13-11 down but lying two when Peter produced a real 'un. And he was brilliant from then, playing as well as anyone I have seen this year."

Despite the 9-5 defeat, Jones pointed out that it was one point better than they did at Ford last season.

"We are four points down from what we took from the same fixtures last year, but there's a long way to go yet - and all the teams at the top know that," he warned.

Ifton, still well placed in fourth, must have feared the worse at the Bayley as they trailed 3-1 and by 36 chalks after their Steve Robinson became the second St Martins man to be 'nilled' this campaign.

A shared middle four left Bayley in control but then coppers-winner Andy Hughes, Rocky Jones and Carl Roberts (both 21-11) and late call-up Chris Pearce (21-18 ) pulled off a sensational three chalk win.

Chester Road may have whitewashed Donnington Wood, but the Bell Boys were far from disgraced with three getting to 18.

Likewise joint leaders Wem USC had the rub of the green as they knocked Archibald Worthington off the top, Paul Smith and Les Markham losing to 20 for the Whitchurch men.

Castlefields, still without Gareth Herbert, look menacing in third after seeing off Bylet 12-2 - but skipper Keith Walton prefers to keep his thoughts to himself.

Last year's wooden spoonists Newport will be reasonably happy with four points at Meole Brace, Dave Rhodes beating county colleague Colin Beaman 21-19 to be four out of four for his new Fishes side.

Most concerned right now will be Childs Ercall skipper Roy Langford. He got closest with 17 as Ercall were whitewashed at Wrockwardine Wood to stay one point adrift at the bottom.

Unlike previous troubled campaigns though, Ercall are surely too good to be last.