Sorry for the late report, Pontymister Athletic travelled to Newbridge on Saturday for a GBL league match. Newbridge are comfortable in the league, but nonetheless, Ponty were expecting a very tough game.
As expected the game was tight and after 5 ends the score was tied, this theme continued and at the halfway point Ponty led by the smallest of margins 1 shot overall, with two rinks and one trailing. The second half saw Ponty edge ahead of the home team and at 15 ends all rinks were up, albeit by a slender margin of 6 shots. Credit to Ponty they kept going in the sunshine and finished up winners by 12 shots {52-40} and a 12 -nil victory.
Rink 2 for Ponty saw the return of the globe trotting Nick Harris who had to be content with a GBL role, Shaun Kenvyn, Keith Richards and Jack Collier take on T.Parker, S.Williams,R.James and G.Parker. The Ponty boys led from the start in a very close encounter against a very competitive home team, but experience told and they recorded a fine 6 shot win.
Rink 3 brought together John Sheldon, Andrew Willmott, Alan Taylor and the ever present Tom Guy, playing against C,Bourne, B.Porter, R.Churcher and G.Willis.The Ponty boys found themselves down in the first half by 6 shots but a spirited comeback in the second half got them home for a narrow win.
Rink 4 was strong for Ponty with Martin “Spanner” Watkins joined by Andrew Davies, Captain Ian Collier and the dependable Graham Smith taking on P.Baylis,M.Jones,N.Llewelyn and G.Evans. Again a very close encounter saw the Ponty boys scrape home by 4 shots.
Pontymister would like to thank Newbridge for a warm welcome, for their hospitality and a fine buffet. Elvis the Teddy Bear was awarded to Nick Harris, not only for his late arrival, having missed the train and disrupted the entire team , but also for his inappropriate dress on match day, which a man of his position, should know better, Unbeknown to Elvis, he was in for a traumatic week, travelling around the country and being lost for the first time.