Shropshire Premier champs Bayley are dropped by title rivals

Reigning champions Sir J Bayley have been left in the dust by leaders Wrockwradine Wood and second-placed Castlefields after an agonising home defeat to the latter.

Sir J Bayley and Castlefields shared the 12 games in their match for a 6-6 draw – with Castlefields nicking four bonus points courtesy of a 219-216 on aggregate.

That was helped by Michael Beer producing a best result of 21-9 over Chris Ward, while Graham Wall, Dave Peach, Andrew Judson, Callum Wraight and Adam Jones.

Alex Jones scored the Bayley boys’ best result – 21-12 over Kevin Price – but it was not enough to get them over the line.

Chris Worthington, Paul Evans, Owen Evans, David Lloyd and Kane Beaman also scored home wins as Sir J Bayley slipped to fourth.

That was because Hanwood moved up to third with a 7-5 (226-214) triumph over St Georges, who are now sixth.

Gary Neal, Phil Lyttle, Wayne Phillips, Ashley Wellings, Glyn Wellings, Darren Wellings and Dan Williams were victorious for Hanwood.

Roy Bradburn, Martin Gaut, Nigel Evans, Phil Jones and Peter Farmer scored for St Georges.

Table-topping Wrockwardine Wood’s ninth win from 10 matches this season came away to seventh-placed Burway – 7-5 (229-209).

Steve Roberts scored Wood’s best result – a 21-8 success – while Kev Dovey bettered that for Burway with a 21-7.

There was nothing to separate bottom side Chester Road and 10th-placed Highley after they shared the games 6-6 and the aggregate shots 207-207, with Highley only scoring an extra point for being the away team.

The best result for each side was also the same – Phil Scott scoring a 21-7 victory for Chester Road and David East a 21-7 for Highley. Ben Hinton, Gary Beff, Liam Jones, Carl Hinton and Chris Nicholson also scored for Chester Road, while Phil Chester, Dave Scriven, Andy James, Danny Statham and Frank Leek replied for Highley.

Newport won eight of the 12 games at Bylet, but it was the hosts who took the extra two points after edging the aggregate 210-208.

Matthew Ealey (21-7) and Scott Harries (21-8) did the majority of the damage on aggregate for Bylet – with Cheryl Caswell (21-11) and Rob Fuller (21-14) also scoring – while Ayden Smith, Ashley Gregory, Ian Whittington, Aaron King, Cody Everitt, Philip Emery, Joseph Killen and Steven Handley earned Newport their eight games.

Meole Brace are up to fifth with a 10-2 (240-188) triumph over Wem USC – Jon Lyttle (21-5) getting their best result in a match that otherwise featured pretty close games.

And Hanmer defeated Ifton 7-5 (235-201) thanks in part to Lee Peate (21-7) and Robin Bennett (21-9).