Pontymister travelled the short distance to one of our closest rivals Cross Keys in a SML game. The keys have an abundance of talent at their disposal and are excelling on every front, but games like this are a great opportunity for the Pontymister boys to mix with the top players in the game.
Feilding a relatively strong team, Cross Keys, as expected, raced into an early lead across all of the rinks 14up after 6 ends, but to the credit of the mister men they started to peg their host back and by 12 ends they had reduced the home teams lead to just 9. A competitive Ponty side continued to eat into the keys lead and finished win 2, losing 2 rinks with the final score Cross Keys 60 Ponty 54; 10 points to 4.
Rink 2 saw the very inexperienced 4 of John Sheldon, Jamie Roberts, Captain Chris Beale and Jack Collier take on the formidable Darren Hobbs, Ray Faulkner, Magpie Barrie Davies and the gentleman Paul Watkins. The game started with the keys dominating the early ends and racing into a lead, but the Ponty boys clicked and won the next 10 ends in a row and to record a fine but unexpected win 18-10. The front end of John Sheldon and newbee Jamie Roberts stuck to their task well and allowed Beale and the superb Jack Collier to play an array of quality shots.
Rink 3 brought together Eathan Symmonds who at 15, has once again grown out of his shoes (3rd time this season),Richie Jones, Ian Collier and Graham Smith against the accurate Chris Perry, Dave Hollister, Keith Edwards and Keiran Davies. The Ponty boys kept the game close in the first half of the game but eventually the keys pulled away and recorded a win by 9 shots.
Rink 4 saw late replacement and professional storyteller Spanner return to his old stamping ground, with Frank Trepleton, Dai Bowd and skip Richie Murphy. They played Brian Duggan, C.Murphy, Dave Greaney and the dependable Tony Brown and acquitted themselves really well in a very close encounter, with Ponty winning the rink on the last end by 3.
Rink 5 for Ponty saw rookie Simon Webb, Ian Holder, Ken Mckinnon and Roger Simms challenge Allan Williams, Rob Thomas and the talented pair of Danny Davies and Ryan Boots. Eager to watch the football, the Cross Keys boys dominated from the off and wrapped the game up early with a comprehensive 12 shot win. The Ponty boys were competitive, but failed to contain the talent that was on show for the keys.
We would like to commend the Keys on their wonderful hospitality both on and off the green and thank them for the lovely food provided after the game. The tributes paid were endless as they are fast becoming the Manchester City of the bowls world, but more importantly, we want them to know that we are right behind them in their quest to bring the Carruthers Shield back to the Mecca and wish them well against Ferndale.