On a long overdue warm, and pleasant Summer’s evening we welcomed our friends the Machen “Dragons” to Fields Road for this SML match.
Machen are a club who are working hard to rebuild and attract new members and we admire their efforts and the progress they are already making, and wish them every success with this project.
Machen held a 2 shot lead on 5 ends, but the mister men found their form over the next 5 ends to lead by 17 shots on 10 ends, the “dragons” pulled the defecit back to just 11 shots on 15 ends, but over the last three ends Pontymister maintained control to win 73-53 and take all 14 points.
On rink 2, making a welcome return our old favourite Frankie Trepleton played lead with Jamie Roberts, David Bowd and Roger Simms against Vince Quirk, R. Watkins, S. Lucas and C. Venables. Pontymister led 6-1 on 5 ends, and 10-4 on 10 ends, before Machen closed the margin to 12-8 on 15 ends, but with a “3” on the 16th end and a “2” on the 17th end it was the mister men who run out winners 17-9.
On rink 3, John Sheldon, Keith Davies, Ian Collier and Richie Murphy had a tough battle against M. Deem, C. Stafford, R. Jones and P. Cooksley. On 5 ends the Machen Dragons led 3-4, but the mister men won 4 of the next 5 ends to lead 9-5 on 10 ends, with a “4” on the 14th end Machen went ahead 11-12 but the mister men won all of the last 4 ends including a “6” on the 16th end to eventually win 21-12.
On rink 4, past master Phil Huntley, up and coming Jason Bradshaw, festival enthusiast Mike Lyons, and Fine Diner Andrew Goodwin, had a sluggish start against J. Mullahy, M. Burkitt, Mike Doody and Andrew Fallaize with the Dragons leading 2-5 on 5 ends. The mister men soon got into their stride however with a “7” on the 8th end, and a “3” on the 9th to lead 13-8 on 10 ends. Shots were shared four a piece over the next 5 ends to make the score 15-12 on 15 ends, with Machen coming back strongly taking two counts of “3” on the last two ends to narrowly lose 19-18.
On rink 5, the Pontymister foursome of Richie Jones, Beynon Jones, acting Captain Chris Beale and ex cabbie Graham Smith had a close game against E. Davies, M. Johns, M. Vacara, and Rhodri Holmes. Machen made a strong start to lead 1-4 on 5 ends, but with two “3’s” and a double over the next 5 ends, it was Pontymister who led narrowly 9-8 on 10 ends. The Dragons had a “4” on the 15th end to trail by just one at 14-13, but with two singles over the last 3 ends it was Pontymister who edged the contest 16-14 despite both rink’s winning 9 ends each.
After the game a very pleasant hour was spent in the company of our visitors over a snack and some welcome cool drinks. We look forward to meeting our friends Machen again in the return fixture later in the season.