Barry Romilly Club side return to winning ways

Romilly Club Team welcomed Penyrheol (Caerphilly) to Romilly Park on Saturday hoping to get their season back on track after losing heavily the previous week.

Having beaten Penyrheol away earlier in the season, winning easily by 23 shots, the opportunity for a good result was on the cards but having performed poorly during the last couple of games the ‘Rom’ had to concentrate against a side capable of taking points.

The game began with the visitors finding the pace and line immediately and by the fifth end were level with the Romilly rinks of Brian Foscolo and Mel Newman and ahead Jeff Wright by four though they were finding it tough against Romilly’s leading rink of Gary Eastment, Rhodri Phillips, Mike Doyle and skip Graham Cogbill behind eight to two.

With the overall score 18 – 16 in favour of Romilly, ends six to 10 were important for Romilly to push on but the visitors were in no mood to allow Romilly to gain the initiative remaining just six shots behind at the end of the tenth.

The score was a little close for comfort and Romilly needed to up their game to ease the sustained pressure the visitors were exerting and the response from the Romilly rinks was immediate and by the 15th end Cogbill had moved ahead by 12, 19 – 7, also Newman’s rink of Jeff Coles, Terry Bloomfield and Clive Collins took the initiative over these ends moving seven clear 15 – 8.

The other rinks of Foscolo and Wright were having harder games, with Foscolo’s rink still tying at 13 – 13 and Wright dropping behind by three giving Romilly an overall advantage of 16 shots 59 – 43.

During the last six ends the ‘Rom’ pushed on with the rinks of Cogbill and Newman continuing to outplay their opponents eventually winning by 27 – 10 and 24 – 12 respectively, whilst Foscolo assisted by Alan Bannister, Ray Hewitson and Fred Phillips finally took charge scoring 11 shots to one winning 24 – 14.

With the game overall in Romilly’s favour and 12 points in the bag it was left to Wright’s rink to make the extra two points but at the 17th end they were behind 12 – 17.

The next three ends saw the Romilly rink score 2, 2, 2, leaving them with a one shot advantage going into the last end, the jack was delivered virtually full length and when second Alun Bryan’s wood touched the jack taking it back towards the ditch, it unfortunately stopped just short.

If both wood and jack had made the ditch the bowl would have been unbeatable and Romilly’s points. The visitors were determined to succeed and their next wood also hit the jack taking it into the ditch away from Bryan’s bowl making the shot and rink game all square.

The game hinged on the bowls of Romilly’s George Trepleton and Jeff Wright against those of Penyrheol’s Geraint Thomas and Roger Skidmore, unfortunately it was the visitors who triumphed adding another shot to win their rink and take the two points.

Romilly’s win 93 – 55 and 12 points still leaves them in second place, two points behind the leaders but with a game in hand, this is being played against Troedyrhiw on Friday, August 7 at Romilly Park 5.30pm followed by a Saturday game away to Caerphilly.

Unbeaten Romilly ‘A’ travelled to the other side of Cardiff to play St Mellon’s in a CML Division 5 league game hoping to continue their fine form but apprehensive about playing on the carpet green where they have struggled in the past.

There were some changes to the Romilly line up in particular skip Andrew Hacher missing through holidays but his position was taken by the versatile Roger Jones also Phil Gershenson and Gwynne Rees, part of the Club team, coming in as leads.

The game began with the Romilly players attempting to hold the home side whilst getting used to the carpet surface and this they managed being just four down at the fifth end even with Dessie Bannister’s rink losing 10 shots without reply.

Bannister’s rink continued to struggle over the next five ends falling further behind 4 – 17, Howard Jones rink was also struggling and behind 7 – 14. Tony Freeman’s rink were three behind at the same stage but Roger Jones rink of Gwynne Rees, Tony Jones and Bryn Gough were competing well and held a two shot lead at the end of the 10th.

By the 15th end Roger Jones rink had increased their lead to seven shots but the other three Romilly rinks were still struggling, Bannister by 17 shots and the rinks skipped by Tony Freeman and Howard Jones were down by five and four shots respectively.

At the start of the 16th end the ‘Rom’ had to make up a deficit of 14 shots, not impossible but hopes were shattered when a further seven shots were dropped over all Romilly rinks making their task of winning overall virtually impossible.

The focus now was for Romilly to pick up some rink points and Roger Jones rink having led throughout continued strongly over the final ends to gain their two points winning 26 – 17.

Howard Jones rink of Phil Gershenson, Denis Motttram and Paul Clarke who struggled up to the 17th end and four behind, finished with a flourish scoring seven shots over the last four ends to win 20 – 17 gaining another two points.

The rink of Freeman, with Colin Davies, Mike Gronow and Bob Wyatt were fighting hard throughout and were never more than five behind but with six ends to play they lost five of the last six ends 1 – 11 losing heavily 9 – 24.

Bannister’s rink who had been well behind throughout collected nine shots over the final five ends doubling their score to 18 but still lost 18 – 27, leaving St Mellon’s as the victors by 73 – 85 taking 10 points to Romilly’s four.

Although this was a disappointing result and first league defeat, games on carpet greens are a potential slippery slope and Romilly have another one shortly against Rhoose but have the knowledge that their nearest rivals Blaenrhondda also have to visit these two venues.