THE sun shone on Barry Island as Barry Athletic Bowls Club kicked off their 107th season on Saturday.

The green was officially opined by Nia Butler the general manager of BowlsWales, the newly formed coordinating body for bowls in Wales.

Nia extended her best wishes for a successful season and then undertook the time-honoured tradition of casting the first bowl of the season.

With a good turnout of both current and new members, there was a healthy audience on the banks as club chairman Richard Bowen spoke of his optimism for the season and thanked all the members that had been involved in getting the clubhouse and green ready for a busy season.

The club will be hosting several prestigious fixtures this year with a 10 Nation International Test Event in July and also a Welsh U-18 Test match against Scotland later in August.

With the regular league programme for the first and second teams, the county and national competitions and regular club events, there is a busy time in prospect on the green at Barry, which was looking meticulous under the watchful eyes and excellent stewardship of Dave Snelling and Gary Jones.

Club captain Mike Vaughan then outlined his aims for the season and wished all club teams and individuals every success in their bowling in 2018.

The first team will be looking for an immediate bounce back to the premier division and can look forward to a number of feisty derby matches as they look to gain immediate promotion and the second team will be looking to consolidate their position the league following their promotion last year.

The rest of the afternoon was taken up with members competing for the John Jones Trophy, a new club competition for members and guests – initial honours fell to John Holmes with a masterful performance and headed off in to the Barry sunset clutching his well-deserved prizes.

The season starts in earnest next week as the club entertains a number of visiting teams in a round robin competition and the selectors will be looking keenly at the form of the players and hoping to ink in a few names for the teams that will be in league action at the end of the month.