ROMILLY Bowls Club A and Midweek sides have had mixed start to the new outdoor bowls season.

The club team have qualified for the knockout stages of the Carruthers Shield although losing one of their group games, whilst the ‘A’ Team winners of the SVLA cup during previous seasons have won two games but had a further two cancelled due to Cubs not able to field teams.

The midweek Munro Cup Team lost their first game but have won their next two.

The league season commenced last Saturday with the Club side playing at home against last seasons league Champions Caerphilly Town, with the ‘A’ side making their debut in Division 3 visiting Bargoed.

Romilly welcomed last seasons champions to Romilly Park last Saturday for the opening league game of the season feeling apprehensive due to their mediocre start to the season.

The game began with the ‘ROM’ after five ends holding a five shot lead, with the rink of A Bryan/G Eastment/C Collins and skip Jeff Wright gaining the early initiative against the opposing rink skipped by Ian Henderson.

Similarly the Romilly rink skipped by Mel Newman with Kelvyn Mills/Terry Bloomfield and Roger Jones took a six shot against a strong Caerphilly rink skipped by Martin Selway. The other

Romilly rinks skipped by Fred Phillips and Graham Cogbill were sharing the spoils with their opponents.

As the game progressed Romilly managed to maintain their lead mainly due to Wright’s rink playing

well, holding an eight shot lead leaving the overall score 39 – 32 in favour of the the ‘ROM’. Caerphilly

as expected were fighting hard and by the end of the fifteenth had reduced their deficit to five, Wright’s

and Newman’s rink were still playing well and the rink of Phil Gershenson/Gwynne Rees/Andrew Hatcher

and Skip Fred Phillips had moved ahead by four shots. Unfortunately Cogbill’s rink had lost ground on their

opponents and were adrift by nine shots. The last six ends were tense with the scores changing in Caerphilly’s

favour as they clawed their way back and were just two shots behind going into the final end. Romilly were

under intense pressure and dropped six shots on the final ends to lose by four shots, overall score 78 – 82.

Rink Scores Romilly First:-

F Phillips 23 v 21 G Jones

J Wright 22 v 17 I Henderson

M Newman 20 v 20 M Seway

G Cogbill 13 v 24 M Smith

Romilly ‘A’ side visited Bargoed last Saturday playing in league division 3 for the first time having gained

promotion last season. This season was going to be difficult as the standard is higher but for various

reasons a number of players have moved on so Club had to blood new players although with potential

the lack of experience at this level they were expected to struggle. This first game would give an idea

of how the rest of the season would pan out and although losing this game there was enough shown to

encourage the Club selectors. The rinks of Stuart Simpson/Arthur Champ/Jerry Daly and skip Alfie Woolcock

along with Paul James/Brian Parker/Denis Mottram along with debutant skip Paul Swannick won their

games by 23 – 14 and 19 – 16 respectively. Skip Brian Cheal with Phil Edwards/Barrie Griffiths and Paul

Clarke were very unlucky after leading right up to the 20th end they dropped a three on the last end to

lose 18 – 19. The rink skipped by Jeff Coles had a torrid afternoon losing 5 – 44, without this result the

overall score could have been different thus giving some encouragement to the Club. The overall score

was a twenty eight shot victory for Bargoed 65 – 93.

On Wednesday, May 31 Romilly midweek team entertained local neighbours Barry Athletic at the Park for a Munro Cup Match.

Having lost their first game Romilly had won their next two games and were keen to continue their good form against an Athletic side always capable of springing a surprise.

The ‘ROM’ were in no mood to take any chances from the off and by the fifth end had raced into a twenty four shot lead. Between ends six and ten Romilly continued their good form going further ahead by thirty eight shots.

There was little change leading up to the fifteenth end with the Athletic still thirty eight shots adrift. With three ends left to play Romilly took a further six shots for a comfortable forty four shot victory 87 – 43.