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On a pleasant Saturday afternoon, we headed up the valley to play Llanhilleth in this Friendly which was arranged only a few days notice. Llanhilleth don’t have a second team so this was a good opportunity for us to play someone different and make new friends! 

On a rather tricky green, Llanhilleth edged ahead by 7 shots after 5 ends, extending that to 10 shots on 10 ends, 13 shots on 15 ends, with Llanhilleth finally running out winners by 21 shots – 67-46.

On rink 1,  gentleman Keith Davies, the remarkable Malcolm Goldie, with his partner in crime John Sheldon and the dependable Alan Taylor were behind 3-6 on 5 ends to A. Green, M. Blancher, A. Chiswell, T. Transir, it was 6-12 on 10 ends, before the mister men narrowed the gap to 13-11 on 15 ends, before eventually losing 16-13. 

On rink 2, the four of Richard Beaugie, Beynon Jones, Andrew Willmott and Richie Jones trailed Llanhilleth’s C. Jones, T. Phelps, I. Jenkins, and R. Daniels 4-3 on 5 ends, 10-6 on 10 ends, 13-10 on 15 ends before the Llanhilleth rink secured a 16-11 win. 

On rink 3, the mister men foursome of Martyn (Spanner) Watkins, Phil Huntley, Alan Elliott, and Tom Guy took on J. Parker, H. Meek, G. Jones and Laurence Jefferies. The “Athletic men” didn’t trouble the scorers in the opening 5 ends dropping 5 consecutive singles, but came back to trail 8-4 on 10 ends. Llanhilleth won 3 of the next 5 ends including a “5” on the 14th end to lead 15-6 on 15 ends, before they won comfortably 18-8. 

On rink 4, the front end pairing of new bowlers Simon Webb, Jamie Roberts, played with in form Sean Kenvyn, and reliable skipper and Capitan Ian Collier who led Llanhilleth’s M. Sheen, B. Jones, J. Jenkins, and G. McCarthy 3-5 on 5 ends, and 6-10 on 10 ends, before the home team narrowed the defect to 12-13 and with a “4” on the 16th end the Llanhilleth men won narrowly 17-14. 

The mister men thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon and thank Llanhilleth for their hospitality and wish them a successful season. 

On a sunny Saturday afternoon, we welcomed our good friends Crosskeys to Fields Road for this MBA Division 1 clash. Crosskeys are the defending champions and with a star studded team they are certainly huge favourites to retain their title and could well go on to achieve even bigger things, so we knew we had to try to make home advantage count.

In a shock experimental move the decision was taken to play in the other direction to our normal MBA match day rinks. This led to an interesting afternoon with players who did well reporting their rink played well, whereas those who didn’t do so well complaining their rink was tricky………..so nothing new there!

The game began fairly tightly with Crosskeys holding a 4 shot lead on 5 ends, that was increased to 13 shots on 10 ends, the mister men pulled the deficit back to just 6 shots on 15 ends, but once again at the business end of the game the Keys pulled away and surged home by a margin of 36 shots, 56-92 (0-14 points).

  On rink 2, there was a very good game between Ken McKinnon, Chris Beale, Richie Murphy, and Dave Hill who played Paul Watkins, Kieron Davies, Ian Williams and Ian Slade. The Keys led 2-5 on 5 ends, and 5-7 on 10 ends, the margin remained only 2 shots at 9-11 on 15 ends before finishing 13-16 to the visitors on 21 ends.

On rink 3, the tightest & most exciting game of the day saw Pontymister’s Mike Lyons, model and camera man Ethan Simmonds, Roger Simms and Roger Venn take on Andrew Williams, Darren Hobbs, Tom Hancock and Danny Davies Jnr. The Mister men roared into a 8-1 lead on 5 ends, but the Keys came back strongly to trail just 11-8 on 10 ends. Pontymister won 4 of the next 5 ends including a count of “4” on the 11th end to lead 19-9 on 15 ends, but could only win 1 more of the last 6 ends. Trailing 20-17 going into the last end Welsh International skipper Daniel Davies jnr played a fantastic last bowl to make a “5” and grab the points for the keys.

On rink 4, Pontymister’s Dave Bowd, Jason Bradshaw, Graham Smith, and Nick Harris had a bad day at the office against Paul Duggan, Simon Bushell, Dan Davies and current Welsh International Christoph Klefenz. The mister men’s were completely outplayed by the Keys who found the line & weight on the tight hand superbly. Skip Nick Harris ended the day with a lot more grey hairs, battling hard to reduce the deficit, but the Keys were just too strong on the day. The score was 2-8 on 5 ends, 5-12 on 10 ends, 7-21 on 15 ends, before Pontymister managed to reach double figures for a 10-30 thrashing. 

On rink 5 Pontymister’s Chris Simmonds, Sid Phillips, Lloyd Turnbull, and Ronnie rocket man Morgan were involved in a good battle with Russel (Rucca) Bryant, Tony Brown, Tom Martin, and talented skip Joe Mower. On 5 ends it was 2-4 to the Keys, who increased their lead to 4-10 on 10 ends, but the mister men came back strongly winning 4 out of the next 5 ends to level the game 11-11 on 15 ends, only for the Keys to seize control over the important last 6 ends, winning 5 of them to finish 13-24 winners.

After the match we enjoyed a friendly hour with our Crosskeys pals and enjoyed Captain Lloyd’s superb buffet which from a Pontymister perspective was the highlight of the day.

We thank Crosskeys for their company and wish them a very successful season. In particular best wishes to Christoph Klefenz and Danny Davies jnr for the home internationals later this month at Leamington Spa and the European championships in Ayr in September.

On a cloudy, but warm enough evening the mister men made the short journey to “The Mecca”,  the home of our good friends and rivals Crosskeys Welfare in the 2nd round of the MBA Cup. Crosskeys have a very strong squad with several international players and are unbeaten in all competitions this season, so we were under no illusions of the enormity of the task which lay ahead.

Pontymister Athletic wish to congratulate Christoph Klefenz, and Danny Davies jnr. for their selection for Wales in the home Internationals in Leamington Spa in June and for the European Championships at Ayr in September, good luck lads!

The match turned out to be a closely fought affair, with the Keys holding a 4 shot advantage on 5 ends, they were 7 shots up on 10 ends, the mister men reduced the deficit to 5 shots on 14 ends, before the Keys took control over the “business end” of the match to run out winners by 22 shots 73-51.

On rink 1, the foursome of Festival lover Mike Lyons, Fashionista Ethan Simmonds, evergreen Roger Simms, and the dependable Roger Venn were involved in a tight battle over the first half of the game with Russell (Rucca) Bryant, Tony Brown, Andrew Bushell, and Tom Hancock , the mister men led 5-6 on 5 ends, and were all square at 8-8 on 10 ends, before the Keys edged ahead 14-11 on 14 ends & eventually won 20-12.

On rink 2, Pontymister’s Chris Simmonds, Jason Bradshaw, Captain Lloyd Turnbull, and the quiet, reserved Ronnie Morgan also had a tight battle with Chris Perry, talented utility player Simon Bushell, Daniel Davies, and Christoph Klefenz. The Pontymister rink were 3-4 up on 5 ends, but the Keys won 4 of the next 5 ends to lead 11-5 on 10 ends, before the “Athletic” came back strongly winning the next 5 ends on the trot to lead 11-12 on 15 ends, before the Keys picked up two “2’s” and a single on the last 3 ends to win 16-12.

On rink 3, Pontymister’s Jason Webb, Sean Kenvyn, Graham Smith, and Nick Harris got off to a bad start against the Key’s four consisting of  the quality veteran front end of Paul Watkins, and Dave Greaney, with the two Ian’s, Williams and Slade at the back. The Keys surged into a 9-1 lead on 5 ends, before the mister men began to adjust to the away green with lead Jason Webb giving a solid foundation, and “man of the match” Sean Kenvyn playing some fantastic drawing and conversion shots. The Athletic reduced the deficit to 12-8 on 10 ends, and then picked up two consecutive “3’s” to lead 12-14 on 12 ends, Crosskeys took an important “3” on the 16th end to lead  17-16, and snatched a single on the 17th end when skip Nick Harris unluckily just missed a trail shot to make a possible “4”, the Mister men picked a single up on the last to lose narrowly 18-17.

On rink 4, the Pontymister combination of Phil Huntley, Ken McKinnon, Chris Beale and Dave Hill had a great battle with the Keys foursome of Andrew Williams, Darren Hobbs, Ryan Boots, and Danny Davies jnr. Pontymister led 4-6 on 5 ends, 6-9 on 10 ends, but the Keys picked up a “2” on the the 11th end, and a “3” on the 12th end and led 11-10 on 13 ends. Crosskeys then picked up a “3” on the 14th, and a “2” on the 15th, and then took singles on the last 3 ends to eventually win 19-10.

After the game we once enjoyed a delicious snack served as usual by Debbie, and had an enjoyable hour with our friends at Crosskeys. We looked forward to hopefully another close game the following day at Fields Road in the MBA league.

On a rather overcast evening, the mister men hit the road again for the fourth away game in their first five SML fixtures (?). Tonight we travelled to Abercarn who have had an influx of players in the close season to bolster their ranks so a tough battle was expected. 

The mister men started well and were 7 shots up on 5 ends, but the home team fought back to lead by 3 shots after 10 ends, the game swung back to Pontymister by the 15th end who held a 7 shot advantage and the mister men managed to hold onto this slender lead running out 52-58 winners & collecting 10 very valuable away points.

On rink 2, promising new bowler Simon Webb, Ian Holder, Chris (aka Mademoiselle “Busty”…) Beale, and the folically blessed skipper Graham Smith  were involved in a tight battle with C. Coombs, D. Mitchell, A. Burns, and P. Robinson. The mister men led 2-3 on 5 ends, but lost 4 of the next 5 ends to trail 4-8 after 10 ends, Abercarn kept their noses in front 11-9 on 15 ends, before running out 14-10 winners.

On rink 3, the loaded front end of John Sheldon, and the talented Malcolm Goldie, played with Chris Simmonds and versatile Ian Collier. The mister men led 2-4 on 5 ends against C. Reers, M. Hillier, T. Howells, and K. Caddick, but Abercarn fought back to lead 8-7 on 10 ends, Pontymister then won 4 out of the next 5 ends to lead 10-14 on 15 ends, before running out 11-17 winners.

On rink 4, Martyn “Spanner” Watkins, and Richard Beaugie were teamed up with the young back end of Sean Kenvyn and promising skipper Jack Collier and played Abercarn’s R. Goodwin, B. Viney, D. Wilshire, and M. Woodward. Pontymister led 2-3 on 5 ends, but Abercarn fought back to square the game 8-8 on 10 ends, and picked up a count of 4 on the 11th end and then won the next 3 ends, before the mister men snatched a “3” back on the 15th end to trail 16-11 . Abercarn went on to win the last 3 ends ending up 19-11 victors.

On rink 5, the club’s talented young Ethan Simmonds was teamed up with Jamie Roberts, Ken McKinnon, and Richie Murphy and played against C. Evans, V. Pfeiffer, A. Medcraft, and G. Caddick. Pontymister led 2-5 on 5 ends against, 6-9 on 10 ends, before winning 4 of the next 5 ends to race into a 7-17 lead on 15 ends and eventually winning comfortably 8-20.

We thank our friends from Abercarn for their hospitality and look forward to seeing them later in the season.

We are delighted to host the Welsh Academy all day tomorrow Thursday 30th May at Fields Road. The Academy consists of promising, talented young bowlers from across Wales whose potential is nurtured and developed by qualified and experienced coaches led by Terry Leighton.
The day begins at 9:30 when the youngsters have a training session and then at 2pm the Academy take on the Barbarians.
Everyone is invited to come along, and enjoy the bowling, the bar will be open all day!