A MIXED week for Romilly Bowlers with two wins and a loss, the midweek Munro Cup side gained another win against Cadoxton taking 12 points and on Saturday the ‘A’ team continued their perfect start to their league season with a home win against Penyrheol ‘A’.

The Club side travelled to St Joseph’s (Cardiff) and suffered their first defeat of the season when going down heavily to a side who they had beaten relatively easy at the home fixture.

The ’Rom’ travelled into Cardiff on Saturday to play their nearest rivals in the Cardiff Municipal League 1st Division expecting a difficult game but were expecting a win on current form. What an afternoon it turned out to be as Romilly stuttered into the game unable to find length or line and by the fifth end the rinks of Jeff Wright and Brian Foscolo were already struggling both behind by seven shots.

The other two Romilly rinks skipped by Graham Cogbill and Mel Newman were just managing to hold their own both being ahead by one shot. As the game continued all Romilly rinks were under extreme pressure and by the tenth end all rinks were behind with the overall deficit 28 shots.

Over previous games the ‘Rom’ rinks have always fought their way back into the games but only Cogbill’s rink, thanks to some great bowls from Rhodri Phillips and Mike Doyle helped them to a four shot lead at the 15th end.

The other Romilly rinks skipped by Newman, Wright and Foscolo at this stage had fallen behind by seven, six and 13 shots respectively leaving Romilly behind overall by 22 shots 46 – 68.

Over the final six ends St Joe’s continued to bowl well leaving Romilly unable to manage any sort of recovery in fact, except for Cogbill’s rink who maintained their lead up to the last end for a 24 – 19 victory to give Romilly two points. These points were the only ones that Romilly were to get as the other rinks were totally outplayed, Wright losing 11 – 26, Newman 7 – 25 and Foscolo 14 – 30 with the overall score 58 – 100 in favour of the Joe’s who picked up 12 points.

Although St Joseph’s are now 16 points ahead in the league table, the ‘Rom’ still have two games in hand, both at home which still leaves the league title for Romilly to lose. Their needs to be a dramatic improvement over the coming weeks, starting with a home game Saturday against Penyrheol followed by another home game versus Troedyrhiw re-arranged for Friday, August 7. Changes have been made for the Penyrheol game with the return of Alan Bannister, Ray Hewitson and Jeff Coles.

Romilly ‘A’ side who are unbeaten in the league so far this season welcomed Penyrheol ‘A’ (Caerphilly) to Romilly Park last Saturday in a C M L 5th Division League match hoping to extend their unbeaten run against a side close to the bottom of their division.

The game got off to a fairly even start over the first five ends with the score just two shots in Romilly’s favour. The away side were playing well and limiting the Romilly players to odd shots here and there with the ‘Rom’ moving seven shots ahead by the tenth.

Considering the league positions Romilly were making hard work of taking control but after the 12th end Romilly players clicked into gear and by the end of the 15th had surged into 26 shot lead, with Andrew Hacher’s rink being the pick holding a 21 – 9 advantage. Hacher ably supported by Dave Noble, Alan Bannister and ‘dad’ Des cruised the final ends eventually winning 29 – 11.

The rink skipped by Ray Hewitson with Kenny Wesgate, Tony Jones and Bryn Gough also played well after half way, even picking up a six on the last end to win by 30 – 11. Other Romilly rinks skipped by Howard Jones and Tony Freeman were having closer games but Jones fortunately picked up 10 shots to one shot between ends 13 to 17 to lead 18 – 10 but then were pressed hard to the last end holding on by three shots 19 – 16.

Freeman’s rink were struggling at seven down at the 12th end then his rink of Colin Davies, Mike Gronow and Bob Wyatt suddenly sprang to life, helping Freeman to score a 5, 2, 1, 2, 3, 1, 7 consecutively to go 27 – 13 ahead at the 19th end then dropped two twos to win 27 – 17.

Another excellent win by Romilly ‘A’ winning overall by 50 shots 105 – 55 taking the 14 points on offer and still unbeaten after nine league games and remaining top of the league.