BARRY Romilly's bowls season is coming to a close and after Saturday's visit to Gelli Park, just one game remains to be played – an away tie against Ysnysbwl – as both sides seek to avoid relegation.

With the league positions of both Romilly and Gelli Park close together, the result was important to the Rom', who although currently sit at the top of the table they had played up to three games more. As a result it was imperative to gain as many points as possible to ensure their First Division status for next season.

Romilly travelled to the Rhondda to play Gelli, who are a difficult side to beat on their own patch. The Rom' were keen to get a positive start and not allow the home team a foothold over the first few ends.

This was achieved with Romilly holding a two shot advantage by the end of the fifth, mainly thanks to the rink of Alan Bannister/Gwynne Rees/Graham Cogbill and skip Fred Phillips who started confidently, holding a seven shot lead at this stage.

Between ends six and ten the game remained tight, with the Rom' slightly increasing their narrow lead to five shots with the overall score 37-32.

The rinks of Bryan Foscolo, Mike Doyle and Phillips were leading by four, five and two respectively, but unfortunately the rink of Alun Bryan/Jerry Daly/Clive Collins and skip Jeff Wright had fallen six shots behind their opposing rink skipped by the renowned Spencer Wiltshire. As the game progressed the 'Rom' players began to out play their opposition and by the end of the fifteenth, Wright's rink had recovered their deficit and were now two ahead.

Mike Doyle's rink of Kelvyn Mills/Terry Bloomfield and Mel Newman had a bad spell, dropping eleven shots in this period, but the rink of Gary Eastment/Paul Swannick/Roger Jones and skip Foscolo scored eleven shots to a reply of one shot taking them into a 21-7 lead.

Also, Phillips' rink remained in control of the opposition holding a six shot advantage, helping Romilly to an overall 64-46 and an 18 shot lead.

Over the final six ends the Rom' had to hold their concentration to win overall, but were required to hold their form to win on all rinks to gain maximum points. Unfortunately Doyle's rink were having a great tussle with their opposition and on the twentieth end the score was level at twenty all. On the final end, the visitors were holding game until their opposition trailed the jack into the ditch leaving Doyle with little chance of gaining shot and eventually dropping a couple of shots to lose 20-22. Wright and Phillips's rinks won their games by five and six respectively but the Foscolo rink had a superb game scoring a 7-6-2-6 over ends 15 to 18 to win by 27 shots, 37-10.

The final overall score was a 36 shot win, 102-66, with the Rom' taking an excellent twelve points to Gelli's two. This result should be sufficient to enable 1st Division status and the final game against Ynysybwl will probably decide their fate in this division, so a difficult final game of the season is expected.