Pontymister Athletic welcomed our friends and neighbours and our closest rivals Pontymister Welfare to Fields Road on Wednesday evening for a SML clash. This fixture is eagerly awaited on the bowling calendar and always fiercely contested, with both sides naming players who have played for both clubs.
The rain held off to get the game started and it was the home team that took the early advantage with all but one rink establishing early leads. The welfare, fielding a mixture of new and experienced bowlers however fought back hard and and on 3 of the rinks the scores were very close, but the mister men were calling the shots on the other rink and ensured victory overall with a massive win of over 30 shots. Final score Ponty Ath 91- 57 Ponty Wel (12 points to 2).
Rink 2 – a young and experimental 4 of Dai Bowd, Richie Jones, Effan Symmonds and Richie Murphy played a relatively experienced 4 from the Welfare. Playing with enthusiasm, skill and the support of Elvis our youngster completely dominated the game and recorded a massive 37-4 win.
Rink 3 brought together Spanner, Sean Kenvyn, Ken Mckinnon and Chris Beale who managed to a narrow win thanks to a 6 and 4 in the last few ends after trailing for most of the game against a talented 4 from the Welfare who were marshalled well by the experienced Gordon Shipp.
Rink 4 was another close encounter with Simon Webb, John Sheldon, Mike Lyons and Graham Smith representing the home team, however it was the away team who took the spoils with a hard fought victory.
Rink 5 saw a mix of youth, inexperience and old timers come together in the form of Jason Bradswaw, Jamie Roberts, Phil Huntley and Jack Collier, ( I’ll let you work out whose who) and in a very close game the Ponty 4 proved too strong for their opponents and recorded a fine win.
Overall, the game was played in fine spirits, and it was evident that the rebuild going on at the Welfare is working, with lots of new and unfamiliar faces acquitting themselves well and had it not been for the big score on rink 2 then this game would have gone to the wire.
It was great to have the Welfare boys back in the club house after the game where we all enjoyed a 5-star buffet and service put on by big Lloyd. We wish the Welfare success for the rest of the season and for the future and look forward to continuing our rivalry next year.