Category: Uncategorized

As we have a very busy day tomorrow Thursday 30th May hosting the Welsh Academy commencing at 9am with their training session and continuing into the afternoon with the match between the Academy and the Barbarians, the coaching session has been cancelled for tomorrow evening.
Furthermore, Coaching sessions will now be switched to a Monday evening at 6pm from next Monday 3rd June. 

We will be experimenting with a new event on a Thursday evening beginning soon, more information to be published shortly!

Please can you not use the green until after 1pm on Monday, Wednesday & Friday’s as our Green keeper needs those mornings to cut & prepare our green.
Last week they were unable to cut our green on Friday morning as someone was playing on it, and as a result we didn’t get the green cut for 5 days.
Your cooperation on this matter would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

On a very pleasant Saturday afternoon, the mister men travelled over to Croesyceiliog for this GBL Div 1 match. Croesyceiliog are always hard to beat on their own green so the mister men knew they had to be at their best to get a result.

The mister men started well leading by 8 shots on 5 ends, this was extended to 17 shots on 10 ends, the margin narrowed slightly to 15 shots on 15 ends, before the Athletic finished off with a 50-60 victory taking 10 points.

On rink 2, the foursome of Alan Elliott, Sean Kenvyn, veteran campaigner Keith Richards, & club photographer Jack Collier trailed 6-3 to the Croesy four of B. John, P. Turner, S. Manley, & M. Brooks, before edging ahead 8-11 on 10 ends, 12-15 on 15 ends, and eventually winning 17-21.

On rink 3, the rink of Dennis Lewis, ardent Man U supporter Phil Huntley, the consistent Alan Taylor, & no nonsense big hitter Tom Guy led 2-3 on 5 ends against P. Silverthorne, T. Whitcombe, W. Saunders, & M. Cleaver, before steaming ahead 3-14 on 10 ends, 7-19 on 15 ends, & then surging home 11-26.

On rink 4, Pontymister’s Ian Collier, Alan Wilmott, Dave Kenvyn, and Jason Webb were 1-6 up after 5 ends against L. Hawke, I. Henry, T. Parfitt, and N. Gooding, before Croesy pulled that back to 9-10 on 10 ends, and levelled the score 13-13 on 15 ends, unfortunately the mister men had run their race and didn’t manage to win another end crashing to a 13-22 loss.

As always we thank Croesyceiliog for their hospitality & look forward to welcoming them to Fields Road later in the season in the return tie.

On another pleasantly warm and sunny afternoon, we welcomed our friends from Ynysddu to Fields Road for this Carruthers Shield tie. The prize was a place in the last 32 in Wales. Ynysddu are a very competitive, progressive club who are surely destined for big things, so we expected this to be a tough battle.

Before play commenced, a minutes silence was observed in memory of Ynysddu’s Team Manager Mel Prosser who very sadly passed away earlier in the week. On behalf of Pontymister Athletic Bowls Club we send our sincere condolences to the members of Ynysddu bowls club & to Mel’s family.

Ynysddu started well, leading by 9 shots on 5 ends, extending this to 17 shots on 10 ends, the next 5 ends however was where the game was won with Ynysddu surging into a 35 shot lead after 15 ends. The mister men did stage something of a comeback over the last 6 ends but with shots in the bag, Ynysddu managed the game very wisely, being prepared to drop 1 or 2 when it was risky to play an attacking bowl and ensuring they didn’t drop any counts. The final result was 74-91, a very deserved 17 shot victory to Ynysddu. The green played fast and very well and it must be said that overall, the  Athletic played their home green poorly, whereas Ynysddu mastered it without difficulty.

On rink 2, Chris Beale, Ken McKinnon, Dave Hill, and Andrew Goodwin had a fairly tight opening 5 ends with A. Jones, Roger Watkins, Dai Thomas, and David Prosser being 1 shot adrift 3-4 after 5 ends, there was still only 1 shot in it on 10 ends at 6-7, but over the next 5 ends the Ynysddu four made their supremacy tell scoring 13 shots without reply to lead 6-20 on 15 ends, in fairness the mister men continued to battle winning 4 of the next six ends to eventually go down 15-22.

On rink 3, the foursome of Ethan Simmonds, Mike Lyons, Roger Simms, and Roger Venn had a very difficult afternoon against J. Helmore, Jordan, Ben, & Mark Warwick trailing 2-9 on 5 ends, 5-17 on 10 ends, 12-24 on 15 ends, before eventually losing 19-27.

On rink 4, Lloyd Turnbull, Sid Phillips, Andy Elias and Ron Morgan struggled to match the overall play of J. Bartlett, A. Trevis, Elliot Bartlett, and “Trog”. The mister men did pick up a “5” on the 5th end to trail only 5-8, but were 9-15 down  on 10 ends, 12-21 on 15 ends before eventually losing 18-29.

On rink 5, Dave Bowd, Jason Bradshaw, Graham Smith and Nick Harris were involved in a very tight battle with Alan Harrhy, Dave Collins, Matthew Harrhy, and Mark Cobley. It was 6-3 on 5 ends to the Athletic, 8-6 on 10 ends, it was all square at 11-11 on 15 ends, before the Mister Men pulled away to win 22-13.

After the game the players enjoyed a buffet, followed by a few cheeky numbers from our very own drag artist Mademoiselle Busty Beale, then some Karaoke before the Ynysddu boys entertained us with some enthusiastic singing. It was fair to say that they bowled a little bit better than they sang, but we thoroughly enjoyed it anyway. 

We congratulate Ynysddu on their fine win, and wish them all the very best for the next round.

To the mister men, with 2 hard games against Crosskeys away in the cup on Friday and then home in the MBA on Saturday, it’s time to knuckle down, get some practice on our own green, and look for a better performance next weekend. 

 

On a chilly late Spring evening with ominous looking dark clouds, this game against our “next door neighbours” and close friends Pontymister Welfare was reduced to 16 ends as a precautionary measure. The Welfare had a great victory at Bedwellty Park in the Carruthers last weekend and so were in good form coming into this SML clash.

The Athletic edged ahead by 9 shots on 5 ends, and increased that to 18 shots on 10 ends, before eventually winning by 36 shots, 35-71 & taking all 14 points. Despite the cold conditions, the green played well and everyone enjoyed the game.

On rink 2 the mister men were represented by Martyn (Spanner) Watkins, Ian Holder, Jason Webb, and “in-form” Andrew Goodwin who were locked at 3-3 on 5 ends against C. Ward, G. Tasker, T. Hall and Granville Vaughan. The mister men worked hard for a 7-12 lead on 10 ends with skipper Goodwin playing some great conversion shots, and despite a late rally by the Welfare the Athletic ended  up winning 10-16. The only slight “blot on the landscape” came on the very last end when “Spanner” Watkins inexplicably bowled a wrong bias, no doubt he will be donating £1 to the Captain’s charity box on the weekend! 

On rink 3 the foursome of Richard Beaugie, club model Ethan Simmonds, Scottish hard hitter Ken McKinnon, and South Mon Team Manager Andy Elias always held the upper hand against The Welfare’s W. Mac, G. Tasker, C. Dieght, and Gordon Shipp, being 3-6 up on 5 ends, 4-14 on 10 ends before picking up a “4” on the 12th end, and a “5” on the 15th end to finish with a convincing 5-28 victory.

On rink 4 the  mister men combination of past master Phil Huntley, open the box jackpot winner Jamie Roberts, the young and very modest Jack Collier, and follically blessed Graham Smith had a tight game against R. Jones, H. Deakins, A. Edwards, and ex mister man Gwyn Jones. The mister men were 2-7 up on 5 ends, but the Welfare pulled things back to trail only 7-9 on 10 ends, the Athletic won the next two ends including a count of 3 on the 12th end, before the Welfare won the last four ends to lose narrowly 12-13.

On rink 5 debutant Simon Webb, experienced festival enthusiast Mike Lyons, the versatile Jason Bradshaw, and the man for all seasons Roger Simms played the Welfare’s S. Higgins, D. Wassell, A. Pritchard, and veteran campaigner Harry Clarke. The mister men led 2-3 on 5 ends, and 4-8 on 10 ends and then tellingly won three successive ends taking two shots on each to take a commanding 4-14 lead on 13 ends, the Welfare battled hard and won the last three ends to eventually go down 8-14.

Afterwards, as always we enjoyed Marie Willing’s wonderful buffet, the highlight as usual was her ice slices. Thanks Marie! A very pleasant hour was enjoyed by all before we departed.

We thank our friends Pontymister Welfare for their warm welcome and hospitality and wish them a very successful season.

For the mister men, next up are two very important games on the weekend, Ynysddu at home in the Carruthers Shield and Croesyceiliog away in the GBL. Let’s win both.

On this very pleasant late Spring Saturday afternoon we welcomed our good friends from Crosskeys to Fields Road for this 2 rink friendly match. 

On rink 1 the four of Richard Beaugie, Beynon Jones, Alan Willmott, and Richie Jones enjoyed a very tight battle with the Keys four of  former mister man Alan Williams, B. Kane, R. Faulkner and W. Hancock. The mister men took an early lead 4-1 on 5 ends, before the Keys edged ahead 5-9 on 10 ends, they increased their advantage to 10-15 on 15 ends, & despite a strong finish by Pontymister the Keys managed to hold on for a 13-15 win. 

On rink 2 the four of Dennis Lewis, Jamie Roberts, Sean Kenvyn and Ian Collier were involved in another good game against B. Duggan, Mitch Santwris, Chris Perry and K. Edwards. It was 3-2 to Pontymister on 5 ends, but the Keys won 4 of the next 5 ends to lead 6-13 on 10 ends,  the Athletic came back strongly to close the arrears to 13-15 on 15 ends before the Keys eventually won 14-19. 

Overall the score was Pontymister Athletic 27 Crosskeys 34. Congratulations to Crosskeys and our thanks for agreeing to this game at short notice.