On a cloudy, but warm enough evening the mister men made the short journey to “The Mecca”, the home of our good friends and rivals Crosskeys Welfare in the 2nd round of the MBA Cup. Crosskeys have a very strong squad with several international players and are unbeaten in all competitions this season, so we were under no illusions of the enormity of the task which lay ahead.
Pontymister Athletic wish to congratulate Christoph Klefenz, and Danny Davies jnr. for their selection for Wales in the home Internationals in Leamington Spa in June and for the European Championships at Ayr in September, good luck lads!
The match turned out to be a closely fought affair, with the Keys holding a 4 shot advantage on 5 ends, they were 7 shots up on 10 ends, the mister men reduced the deficit to 5 shots on 14 ends, before the Keys took control over the “business end” of the match to run out winners by 22 shots 73-51.
On rink 1, the foursome of Festival lover Mike Lyons, Fashionista Ethan Simmonds, evergreen Roger Simms, and the dependable Roger Venn were involved in a tight battle over the first half of the game with Russell (Rucca) Bryant, Tony Brown, Andrew Bushell, and Tom Hancock , the mister men led 5-6 on 5 ends, and were all square at 8-8 on 10 ends, before the Keys edged ahead 14-11 on 14 ends & eventually won 20-12.
On rink 2, Pontymister’s Chris Simmonds, Jason Bradshaw, Captain Lloyd Turnbull, and the quiet, reserved Ronnie Morgan also had a tight battle with Chris Perry, talented utility player Simon Bushell, Daniel Davies, and Christoph Klefenz. The Pontymister rink were 3-4 up on 5 ends, but the Keys won 4 of the next 5 ends to lead 11-5 on 10 ends, before the “Athletic” came back strongly winning the next 5 ends on the trot to lead 11-12 on 15 ends, before the Keys picked up two “2’s” and a single on the last 3 ends to win 16-12.
On rink 3, Pontymister’s Jason Webb, Sean Kenvyn, Graham Smith, and Nick Harris got off to a bad start against the Key’s four consisting of the quality veteran front end of Paul Watkins, and Dave Greaney, with the two Ian’s, Williams and Slade at the back. The Keys surged into a 9-1 lead on 5 ends, before the mister men began to adjust to the away green with lead Jason Webb giving a solid foundation, and “man of the match” Sean Kenvyn playing some fantastic drawing and conversion shots. The Athletic reduced the deficit to 12-8 on 10 ends, and then picked up two consecutive “3’s” to lead 12-14 on 12 ends, Crosskeys took an important “3” on the 16th end to lead 17-16, and snatched a single on the 17th end when skip Nick Harris unluckily just missed a trail shot to make a possible “4”, the Mister men picked a single up on the last to lose narrowly 18-17.
On rink 4, the Pontymister combination of Phil Huntley, Ken McKinnon, Chris Beale and Dave Hill had a great battle with the Keys foursome of Andrew Williams, Darren Hobbs, Ryan Boots, and Danny Davies jnr. Pontymister led 4-6 on 5 ends, 6-9 on 10 ends, but the Keys picked up a “2” on the the 11th end, and a “3” on the 12th end and led 11-10 on 13 ends. Crosskeys then picked up a “3” on the 14th, and a “2” on the 15th, and then took singles on the last 3 ends to eventually win 19-10.
After the game we once enjoyed a delicious snack served as usual by Debbie, and had an enjoyable hour with our friends at Crosskeys. We looked forward to hopefully another close game the following day at Fields Road in the MBA league.