ON THE MOST splendid evening weather-wise of the year so far, Cadoxton bowlers travelled to Penarth last week to play Windsor in a friendly Alliance game. Losing overall by 56 shots to 68, the Cadoxton team bravely recovered from a poor start on all four rinks.

Two rinks stood out. Don Kuhnell’s rink recorded some steady winning scores, largely motivated by the opening bowl skills of Ewan Heppenstall, but lost overall by five shots, with a 5-shot shortfall and a 4-shot one in the closing stages sealing their fate.

Obliged to play a man short, the rink of Dennis Hammond, Derek Brook and Phil Ellis drove home a significant victory of 18 shots to 16 over their four-man Windsor opposition with Cadoxton’s ‘three musketeers’ slotting in winning scores of four and three shots along the way.

Gordon Davies skipped his rink in an enthusiastic fight against their opponents, building on the skills of the front two players, Jim Stacey and Howard Hellyar, but were unable to keep down a bubbling Windsor side which steered home a 3-shot win and a 4-shot one in mid-match ends, with Cadoxton coming off worse with an 11-shot total against 15 shots.

The rink led by Steve Clarke did markedly better, but couldn’t keep up with their more accurate opponents, losing out with 13 shots to 18 shots.

Cadoxton secretary David Fanning paid tribute to the well-tailored bowling quality of the Windsor green and said that such Alliance matches “offer a friendly though determined opportunity for team players to hone their skills and fine tune their bowling accuracy”.

He added that Cadoxton players are heading into the next few months of Cardiff and District Municipal League matches with a rising level of confidence.

Scores: D G Tuck, I Heppenstall, D Fanning, S P Clarke 13 – B Peregrine, D Johnson, M Cuccinello, H C Lewis 18; E Heppenstall, D Evans, R Byrne, D Kuhnell 14 – T White, S Latham, B Rogers, R Flitney 19; D Hammond, D Brook, P Ellis 18 – A Davies, J Mathias, D Hales, P Morrish 16; J Stacey, H Hellyar, G Solomon, G Davies 11 – S Stafford, R Ellis, K Williams, K McLeod 15.