AFTER a midweek with no league game Romilly Bowling Club players were looking forward to their Saturday fixtures with the Club side at home to St Joseph’s Cardiff and the ‘A’ Side away at Penyrheol Caerphilly.

Both sides were in a confident mood after the great start to their league season and good results would keep the Club side at the head of the table and help the ‘A’ side to maintain their position at the top of their league.

On a breezy but sunny Saturday afternoon the ‘Joe’s’ turned up at Romilly Park in buoyant mood after their good start to season beating Gilfach in their opening game, so Romilly could not afford to take a win for granted.

The opening five ends proved that St Joe’s were not going down without a fight and they actually led by nine shots as the home players once again struggled to find consistency on a green which again was playing heavy with the usual tricky runs.

Obviously the situation was the same for both sides but the Romilly players should have had the advantage on their own green and by the end of the tenth they had improved, fighting hard to draw level at 39 – 39.

As the game progressed Romilly began to exert pressure on their opponents and by the 15th end the rinks of Graham Cogbill and Mel Newman had forged ahead by six and eight shots respectively and with Fred Phillips level at 13 – 13 only Jeff Wright’s rink was struggling at nine shots down.

Although Romilly were five shots ahead overall it was to close for comfort and therefore needed a big push over the last six ends to ensure victory, all rinks responded well making a further 18 shots to for a good win by 23 shots.

With three rinks winning, the ‘Rom’ gained 12 points to the ‘Joe’s’ two, allowing Romilly to remain top of the table with 26 points out of 28, overall score Romilly 94 - St Joseph’s 71.

Rink scores Romilly first:-

A Hacher/Rhod Phillips/G Trepleton/J Wright 18 v 28 K Lewis

P Gershenson/G Rees/R Jones/F Phillips 20 v 18 B Cornish

K Mills/T Bloomfield/C Collins/M Newman 28 v 14 G Champion

G Eastment/R Hewitson/M Doyle/G Cogbill 28 v 13 G Williams

The Romilly ‘A’ team travelled to Penryheol for their second fifth division league game of the season in confident mood and welcoming the return of Paul Williams and Alun Bryan from holidays with Bryan making his seasonal debut.

On paper the ‘Rom’ looked like a strong team but over the first five ends they didn’t have things their own way as the home team made them fight for all shots and the score was level 19 – 19.

As the game progressed, the Romilly rinks of Howard Jones and Alun Bryan playing some good bowls, forged ahead by 11 and six shots respectively and with Bob Wyatt’s rink holding their own at seven apiece it was only Paul Williams rink who were surprisingly seven shots behind leaving the overall score 41 – 31 in favour of the visitors.

The rinks of Jones and Bryan were in tremendous form and were laying the foundation for an excellent away win being ahead at the 15th end by 20 and 13 shots respectively.

Wyatt’s rink were also finding their form and had moved ahead by six shots whilst Williams rink had reduced their deficit to four shots giving Romilly an overall lead going into the final quarter of 35 shots 77 – 42.

The overall result was never in doubt, only whether Williams rink could claw back their deficit over the final ends, unfortunately this proved beyond them as they finally succumbed to a three shot defeat but the other three rinks were now romping away and had sealed an excellent win 97 – 54 taking 12 points to two.

Rink scores Romilly first:-

A Bannister/A M Jones/D Bannister/P Williams 19 v 22 P Mitchell

D Mottram/C Tapscott/P Clarke/H D Jones 31 v 9 N Chivers

L Jones/D Noble/B Gough/A Bryan 22 v 11 J Humphreys

C Davies/M Gronow/B Cheal/R Wyatt 25 v 12 S Thomas