Battle to avoid wooden spoon hotting up

Tension-filled battles are developing at both the top and bottom of the Furrows Shropshire Premier Bowls League.

Champions Castlefields powered nine points clear with a 13-1 (agg 104) romp at home to Bylet last night, main title rivals Chester Road nearly matching that with an 11-3 (agg 49) win over visiting Bayley.

But Bylet's big defeat, allied to Childs Ercall's stunning 12-2 (agg 39) home triumph over Wrockwardine Wood, really stirred things up at the wrong end of the table.

The Bridgnorth club find themselves six points adrift after Archibald Worthington continued their upward curve by becoming the second team to win at Ifton in the space of 48 hours, storming in 10-4 (agg 35).

Bowring beat Ford 8-6 (agg 10) - Rob Roden warming up for tomorrow's Merit finals with a 21-1 win - but both are a bit anxious, as are the Wrockites now that Ant Aldridge and Dave Semper are no longer regulars.

Meole Brace were level 2-2 at St Georges after the early exchanges but eventually slipped to an 11-3 (agg 49) loss while Wem USC came goodÊto see off visitors Newport by the same score (agg 55).