BARRY Athletic Bowls Club’s 22 shot victory away to Ogmore Vale last Saturday, saw them progress to the second round of the Carruthers Shield where they will visit Rhymney Gwent.

The home side came out of the blocks quickly, building up a fifteen-shot lead in the first four ends as the visiting Athletic players tried to build familiarity with the green in order to play their shots with confidence. As the game developed, the heads gradually saw more of the iconic purple and gold Barry colours in key positions and as a result the Athletic were able to claw back the home side’s advantage. Building a lead which they were never going to surrender, Barry eventually ran out victors by 22 shots after a competitive encounter.

Cornerstone to this success was the pressure built up on the opposition by Richard Bowen’s and Robert Horgan’s rinks. Although both rinks started slowly as they built up an understanding of how to play the valley surface, they gradually established an advantage over their opponents and were able to provide the shot advantage to underpin the victory.

Robert Horgan, with young novice Russell Harris on debut and Gwynfor Parr at lead put together a winning run of seven ends from nine to establish an advantage in their match and finished with a run of four straight winning ends to return a 26-14 scorecard. Harris belied his inexperience with an excellent performance to repay the selectors faith in his potential and will now surely be a valuable member of the first team squad for the future.

Richard Bowen, with the experience of Geoff Whittaker returning at third, had a tough battle over the opening ends against Jonathan Clayton and former international Mal Goss but had eked out a 10-7 advantage over the home team by the 10th end. The rink with Tim Morgan at lead and Lol Paige at second then moved through the gears to win seven ends in a row, including three consecutive three shot wins to build a 23-7 shot advantage by the seventeenth end. They eventually returned a winning 27-9 scorecard.

Glyn Thomas’s rink saw a tough battle with home captain Jarrad Jones with the lead changing hands several times. Ultimately, a crucial four shots on the 20th end and a single on the final end secured the win and provided another winning scorecard by 19-16. Martin Clarke fought hard to restrict the free-scoring of Paul Jones’s rink from the start and was always looking at a deficit following a start which saw the home side build up a 14-5 lead after eight ends. However, the experienced back pairing of Martin and former club skipper Chris Wright saw them restrict their opponents over the remaining ends to help secure an important victory for the team by 22 shots.

The Barry Athletic selectors will have been pleased to see the balance of experience and potential blend so well in this difficult away fixture with many players endorsing their selections with fine performances, on a surface where accuracy and execution was key.

There was similar celebration at the 4Wood green at Barry where the Athletic’s PG2 inflicted a comprehensive defeat on league leaders Cardiff, taking 13 of the 14 points available and securing a winning margin of 29 shots. Thirteen points has pushed the Athletic right up the table and created a realistic opportunity to secure an immediate return to the top flight - a goal that would have appeared out of reach after an indifferent start to the season.

The points machine that is David Snelling secured yet another victory on the fast running home surface by 26-18. However, it was Mike Vaughan’s rink that took top rink honours as they posted a big win by 29-12 shots; with experienced former international Gareth Humphreys at third, Mike’s rink proved too strong for the visitors from the first end to the last, largely as a result of the accurate leading of Phil Killin and the support work of Slim Jones.

Paul Webley with Steve Mckernan secured a further two points for the Athletic by returning a winning card of 20-16 and Albert Mintern’s rink was unfortunate in allowing a significant lead to be pulled back and dropping a three on the last end to draw against the visiting league leaders 27-27. Nonetheless, with many strong performances in evidence across the four rinks, there will be many players pushing for first team action in the next couple of weeks.

Many of the Barry Athletic players have reached the business end of the county competitions this week. In the semi-final of the singles, Chris Wright and his brother David join Martin Clarke to ensure the Athletic will have at least one place in the south vale final. Elsewhere, Martin will join the experienced Richard Bowen, Glyn Thomas and Robert Horgan to battle it out in the Fours semi-final away at Dinas Powys. With just a couple of weeks left in the county competitions, the club will be looking to add to their haul of 83 county titles with further honours and representation at the National Finals at Llandrindod.