ROMILLY Bowls Club continued their fantastic start to their league season with both Club and ‘A’ teams

winning their respective games. The Club side were away to Gelli Park (Rhondda) always a difficult fixture with the ‘A’ side welcoming Cardiff side St Joseph’s to Romilly Park.

On Saturday the Romilly Club team travelled to the Rhondda with a slightly re-arranged team due to the non-availability of Skip Jeff Wright but due to their depth in the squad the team were still confident of obtaining a result.

A difficult game was expected against a side who rarely lose on their home green and Saturday’s green was looking decidedly unpleasant with a mixture of thick grass combined with bare patches, every bowler knows how difficult this is. However the ‘Rom’ this season know how to battle and were prepared for these conditions.

The game commenced with the sky overcast and a forecast for rain showers but this didn’t deter the bowlers from producing some early excellent bowls on the difficult rinks and by the fifth end the home team were holding a one shot lead.

This encouraged the Romilly bowlers being just one shot down whilst working out the green, because by the end of the tenth the ‘Rom’ had moved into a nine shot lead 39 – 30. All rinks were battling hard under the conditions with rink of P Gershenson, Rhod Phillips, P Williams and G Trepleton being the most successful at this stage holding a seven shot advantage.

The overall game remained close but Romilly were coming under extreme pressure and by the fifteenth end they had gone seven shots adrift with three rinks behind leaving just Trepleton’s rink ahead by six.

Once again the battling qualities of the Romilly players came to the fore during the final quarter as the rink of G Eatment, R Hewitson, M Doyle and skip G Cogbill fought out a great game against home skip Kevin Rees with the ‘Rom’ rink winning by one on the last end after being six behind on the seventeenth end.

Mel Newman’s rink who were ahead by four at one stage found themselves seven down at end twenty but then finished off with a superb four on the final end to lose by just three shots which had a massive bearing on the game.

With Trepleton’s rink holding their nerve, eventually winning by five shots it was left to the rink of Gwynne Rees, Roger Jones, Fred Phillips and Brian Foscolo to hold onto Romilly’s overall two shot lead against the legendary home skip Spencer Wiltshire. With the rink score in favour of the home team 18 - 19 it was Wiltshire who had the final say with the Romilly rink holding three shots he drew shot with his last bowl to win the rink 18 – 20 but not enough for the overall result as Romilly held on to win by 76 – 75. The rinks ended two apiece with Romilly taking a valuable 10 points to Gelli’s 4.

Romilly ‘A’ v St Joseph’s

Romilly ‘A’ welcomed Cardiff side St. Joseph’s to Romilly Park last Saturday in a 5th Division league match hoping to retain their unbeaten record.

The game began with visitors taking the early initiative going seven shots ahead after just two ends but on the third end Romilly picked up thirteen shots across their rinks which helped the ‘Rom’ to a one shot lead at the end of the fifth.

As the game progressed the rink of Howard Jones took charge and they were nine ahead by the tenth end and with the other rinks having a close fought contest Romilly had an overall advantage of ten shots.

By the fifteenth end the score difference was still ten but the scores on individual rinks were changing as the rinks of Jones and Tony Freeman although still leading were leaking shots whilst the rink of Andrew Hatcher had fallen further behind fortunately Alun Bryan’s rink of Alan Bannister Tony Jones and Bryn Gough found their form making eight shots between ends eleven to fifteen.

The final quarter saw the ‘Rom’ pressurise the ‘Joe’s with Hatcher’s rink fighting back from a deficit of eight shots to win by two 21 – 19, also the rinks of Jones and Freeman played superbly to both win by fifteen shots 29 - 14 and 33 – 18 respectively. Bryan’s rink although winning dropped six shots but held on by two shots 15 – 13 to ensure a 14 point win for the ‘Rom’ and keep them within two points of the league leaders.