Pontymister Athletic travelled up the valley to Newbridge in a SML clash. Both sides are performing well this with Ponty in 3rd and Newbridge one place behind in 4th, so a tight game was expected. The game started in the drizzle with Ponty taking the initiative and building up a small lead after 6 ends by 7 shots. The game remained tight and after 12 ends Newbridge had cut the deficit by to 3 shots, but were only ahead on 1 rink. The Ponty boys then fell apart on rink 3, conceding 17 shots in 5 ends after leading the game throughout, which gave Newbridge the impetus to go on win on all but one of the rinks and record a victory 69-57(12 points to 2)
Rink 2 – The Ponty 4 of Spanner, Shaun Kenvyn, Effer Simmonds and Sid Phillips played a very experienced Newbridge 4 of J.Churcher,captain Kevin Lane, C.Powell and D.Moergan. From the start the Ponty boys led and this continued all the way with our front end boys peppering the jack all night and recorded a fine 5 shot win
Rink 3 – For Ponty Ian Holder, B.Jones, club captain Lloyd Turnbull and Graham Smith took on JJ,R,Thomas,M,Dowden and the wily old fox Eddie Harding. The Ponty boys started superbly with the front end solid allowing our back two to call the shots, but a disastrous run of ends starting at thw 114th end, saw them lose heavily by 9shots ;such a shame after playing brilliantly in the early stages, but thats bowls for you.
Rink 4 – Saw the in-form rookie Simon Webb matched up with John Sheldon, Ken McKinnon and Roger Venn, who rarely graces us with his presence on a Wednesday night. They played P.Blanch,G,Evans,S,Hughes and C.Ridland and again got off to a great start, but the lead was short lived and when Newbridge got their noses in front, they never looked back winning by 5 shots.
Rink 5 – finally Rink 5 was a put together rink by Ponty who matched our newbees Richard Beaugie, Jamie Roberts together with Dai Bowd and Chris Beale. The opposition was a bit scarey for the inexperienced Ponty 4 with Paul Hinder being joined by G.Parker,P.Churcher and the dependable Geoff Banwell, but great credit goes to the Ponty boys who battled hard and actually won 10 of the 18 ends before losing by 3 shots. Richie Beaugie was absolutely brilliant against Paul Hinder at the front end and his new shiney bowls certainly worked for him. Likewise Roberts chipped in with some great bowls as he just gets better and better and had it not been for one end where Newbridge manufactured a 4 with Geoff Banwell taking out a Ponty Bowl, then the boys could have won.
would like to sincerely thank Newbridge for a great welcome, lovely refreshments and great company after the game. Spanner stole the show for the visitors with his Tales that kept the captivated Newbridge boys entertained late into the night and got the driver of his car a row for being late home. We would like to wish Newbridge well for the future and look forward to seeing them again on Saturday for an early (2pm) MBA clash.