Bylet survive a fifth league showdown

The Bridgnorth club survived a famous fifth play-off showdown to retain their place in the Salop Leisure Shropshire Premier League with victory over Market Drayton League champions Adderley.

And vital to their 31-shot win at Old Shrewsbury on Friday night was the performance of the first woman to appear in the crunch clash, reigning Shropshire Ladies Merit champion Cheryl Caswell.

She won the player-of-the-match award for her 21-9 success that came at No.9 in the 12-a-side clash – and just after Adderley had staged a middle-four fightback.

The villagers trailed by 16 chalks after the first four, county man Scott Harries winning 21-10 and play-off veteran Tim Ealey 21-14, a 21-18 win by Tony Sherratt being the only reply.

“Into the middle four and Adderley started a fightback. Ed Proudlove was 14-4 up and Ian Atherton, with encouragement from some of the crowd, led 14-9 and Gary Whitehall got to 12-3,” said Premier chief Rob Burroughs.

Proudlove eventually won 21-14 and, with captain Whitehall adding a 21-12, it meant Adderley were only 10 behind. That’s when Caswell got to work for Bylet, racing 12-3 up in her win while Jamie Taylor powered 15-4 to put the issue to bed, winning 21-8 as the club that finished bottom finished with eight winners.

“Well done to Bylet on retaining their status, and commiserations to Adderley,” added Burroughs.

“Also well done to Cheryl Caswell for winning the player-of-the-match award – the first woman in the league to win one of these in one of our finals – for her consistent display.

“Thank you to Old Shrewsbury for hosting, Mike Potter for refereeing and to Louise Cotton for helping measure.”

Bylet last survived a play-off in 2014 but, after a period of being comfortable in the Premier, they have serious thinking to do over the closed season. As for Adderley, they have to decide whether to keep trying after failing to bridge the gap again, as they did in the 2019 play-off against Chester Road.