On another pleasantly warm and sunny afternoon, we welcomed our friends from Ynysddu to Fields Road for this Carruthers Shield tie. The prize was a place in the last 32 in Wales. Ynysddu are a very competitive, progressive club who are surely destined for big things, so we expected this to be a tough battle.
Before play commenced, a minutes silence was observed in memory of Ynysddu’s Team Manager Mel Prosser who very sadly passed away earlier in the week. On behalf of Pontymister Athletic Bowls Club we send our sincere condolences to the members of Ynysddu bowls club & to Mel’s family.
Ynysddu started well, leading by 9 shots on 5 ends, extending this to 17 shots on 10 ends, the next 5 ends however was where the game was won with Ynysddu surging into a 35 shot lead after 15 ends. The mister men did stage something of a comeback over the last 6 ends but with shots in the bag, Ynysddu managed the game very wisely, being prepared to drop 1 or 2 when it was risky to play an attacking bowl and ensuring they didn’t drop any counts. The final result was 74-91, a very deserved 17 shot victory to Ynysddu. The green played fast and very well and it must be said that overall, the Athletic played their home green poorly, whereas Ynysddu mastered it without difficulty.
On rink 2, Chris Beale, Ken McKinnon, Dave Hill, and Andrew Goodwin had a fairly tight opening 5 ends with A. Jones, Roger Watkins, Dai Thomas, and David Prosser being 1 shot adrift 3-4 after 5 ends, there was still only 1 shot in it on 10 ends at 6-7, but over the next 5 ends the Ynysddu four made their supremacy tell scoring 13 shots without reply to lead 6-20 on 15 ends, in fairness the mister men continued to battle winning 4 of the next six ends to eventually go down 15-22.
On rink 3, the foursome of Ethan Simmonds, Mike Lyons, Roger Simms, and Roger Venn had a very difficult afternoon against J. Helmore, Jordan, Ben, & Mark Warwick trailing 2-9 on 5 ends, 5-17 on 10 ends, 12-24 on 15 ends, before eventually losing 19-27.
On rink 4, Lloyd Turnbull, Sid Phillips, Andy Elias and Ron Morgan struggled to match the overall play of J. Bartlett, A. Trevis, Elliot Bartlett, and “Trog”. The mister men did pick up a “5” on the 5th end to trail only 5-8, but were 9-15 down on 10 ends, 12-21 on 15 ends before eventually losing 18-29.
On rink 5, Dave Bowd, Jason Bradshaw, Graham Smith and Nick Harris were involved in a very tight battle with Alan Harrhy, Dave Collins, Matthew Harrhy, and Mark Cobley. It was 6-3 on 5 ends to the Athletic, 8-6 on 10 ends, it was all square at 11-11 on 15 ends, before the Mister Men pulled away to win 22-13.
After the game the players enjoyed a buffet, followed by a few cheeky numbers from our very own drag artist Mademoiselle Busty Beale, then some Karaoke before the Ynysddu boys entertained us with some enthusiastic singing. It was fair to say that they bowled a little bit better than they sang, but we thoroughly enjoyed it anyway.
We congratulate Ynysddu on their fine win, and wish them all the very best for the next round.
To the mister men, with 2 hard games against Crosskeys away in the cup on Friday and then home in the MBA on Saturday, it’s time to knuckle down, get some practice on our own green, and look for a better performance next weekend.