On a distinctly cool early Summer’s evening we welcomed Newbridge to Fields Road for this SML fixture. Newbridge were promoted to the MBA Div 1 last season and are still going strong in the Carruthers Shield so we knew this would be a tough battle, and so it proved to be.
Newbridge edged into a 2 shot lead on 5 ends, before the lead swung back to Pontymister by the same margin on 10 ends, the game changed during the next five ends with Newbridge gathering momentum to take a 10 shot lead on 15 ends, and although the mister men battled hard over the final few ends, Newbridge ran out winners by 9 shots 57-66 & taking 10 points to Pontymister’s 4 points.
The green was fast, and despite one or two little tricks, it played very well.
On rink 2, promising new starter Simon Webb, experienced Richie Jones, the unflappable Dave Bowd, and the talented campaigner Phil Huntley were locked at 3-3 on 5 ends, but then won 4 out of the next 5 ends to lead 8-5 on 10 ends. The Newbridge rink of P. Blanche, K. Davies, G. Evans and R. Thomas hit back strongly taking a 4, a 3, and a single on the next 3 ends respectively and led 11-14 on 15 ends, and they managed to hold on for a hard fought 13-15 victory.
On rink 3, Pontymister’s “Spanner” Watkins, Yorkshireman Jamie Roberts, utility player Chris Beale who’s currently in a “rich vein of form” and his long suffering workmate Nick Harris had another very hard tussle with J. Jones, R. James, Phil Churcher, and Clive Cridland. The teams were level 3-3 on 5 ends, but the mister men began to find their form with three “2”‘s and a “3” over the next 4 ends to lead 10-5 on 10 ends with vice Captain and Treasurer Beale playing some terrific conversion shots. The Newbridge rink rallied to win 4 of the next 5 ends to edge into a single shot lead for the first time in the game at 12-13 on 15 ends. The Mister men took a “2” on the 17th end to make the game all square going into the last end. With the Athletic holding the shot they needed for victory and with the situation in the head being fraught with danger, skip Harris decided to play a blocker half way down the green, to which “Spanner” who wasn’t aware of this intentional tactical ploy, memorably shouted “Bloody hell, Nick’s ran out of steam hasn’t he boys?”. The blocker did it’s job with Newbridge’s last bowl smashing into it and the mister men edged home 15-14.
On rink 4, the four of Richard Beaugie, “up and at ’em” Malcolm Goldie, talented Mike Lyons and follically blessed skipper Graham Smith had a good game against B. Hipkiss, N. Llewellyn, D. Morgan and T. Perry. Newbridge led 3-6 on 5 ends, but the mister men pulled back to 11-11 on 10 ends, and worked hard to lead 17-12 on 15 ends, they maintained their 5 shot margin to finish 19-14 victors.
On rink 4, it was an evening of woe for the mister men’s John Sheldon, Beynon Jones, Ian Collier and Richie Murphy who did battle with T. Parker, T. Harper, R. Churcher and E. Harding. It all started fairly well with the score 4-5 on 5 ends, but the Newbridge men began to take ascendance to lead 7-13 on 10 ends. The mister men fought back picking up 2 singles, but then dropped a “4” on the 15th end to trail 9-20. Newbridge deservedly ran out 10-23 winners in the end despite Pontymister’s hapless foursome’s best efforts.
After the game we enjoyed a light buffet and refreshments with our friends from Newbridge who we send our best wishes to for the rest of the season.