BARRY Athletic Bowls Club recorded another successful week of results on the green as the league season nears its climax.

Having successfully navigated their way to final of the Private Greens Single Rink competition, the Athletic faced a Penarth side looking for victory after their surprise win over Ely Valley.

Playing at a rain swept Llanbradach green, Penarth opened up a big advantage early on building a 7-0 lead after just three rain interrupted ends when the players had to shelter from the heavy rain showers.

Gradually, the Barry rink clawed back the arrears with Rowland Fletcher and Carl Best dropping in good bowls on a difficult rink to set up head winning positions.

Conversions were difficult but Penarth skip Colin Grant was successful in turning number of heads to score for Penarth.

After recovering to 8-10 down, Barry Athletic had their first chance to inflict serious damage on the 13th end and with the Penarth back end failing both Robert Horgan and Richard Bowen added bowls to a head to record a five and take the lead 13-10.

A single on the next end added to the lead and it was a case of managing the heads carefully over the remaining four ends to ensure there was no major damage inflicted.

The successful Barry four eventually ran out victors in the gathering gloom by 16 shots to 12, and record their third piece of silverware for the season, after victories in the Munro Cup and the Senior Singles at the National Championship.

It was back to league action on Saturday when the PG1 side faced a Pontyclun staring at relegation from the division and desperate to pick up points.

On a heavier than usual 4Wood green at Barry, the visitors found the pace to their liking and got off to a good start all round with the lead changing hands on each rink early on.

Carl Best’s rink gradually opened up a lead of 13-5 after 7 ends, and David Wright’s four similarly accelerated to 12-3, giving the Barry club a ten shot lead midway through the game.

However the Pontyclun side refused to throw the towel in and gradually claimed shots across the four rinks to reduce the deficit to just one shot after 15 ends.

It was time for the Barry rinks to dig in and that is just what they did, with Robert’s Horgan rink pushing on to a 22-9, victory, Richard Bowen’s rink scoring 7 shots to 2 over the last five ends to record a victory by 22-19, and Carl Best scoring 4 shots to one over the last three ends to claim a further two points.

However the battle was still intense on David Wright’s rink, losing by one shot 18-19 as they started the final end; with a match lay against him, David’s drive shot saw the jack leaping vertically out of the head and bouncing back up the green to still lay shot against, but with his final bowl he expertly removed the Pontyclun shot from the head to lay two shots and claim victory by 20 shots to 19.

An overall win by 20 shots and an important 14 points in the promotion battle ensured that the Barry side are still in the hunt for promotion and with a just four fixtures left skipper Mike Vaughan will be looking at least two victories in the final four games of the season to reclaim their position in the top division of the Private Greens league.

The PG2 side made it a victorious weekend with a famous away victory at Merthyr West End to ensure that they will be playing bowls in the top division next year.

Defeats for Paul Webley and Gareth Humphreys were covered by big victories by Albert Mintern and Mike Vaughan.

With two ends to go Barry held a slender four shot advantage across the rinks with just skipper Vaughan’s rink left to play but the experience and skill of the Barry captain safely navigated them through to a famous victory by drawing second when five down on the 20th end and saving them again when facing a four on the final end, all of which resulted a narrow one shot victory and a valuable 10 points towards the league total.

With two local derbies to be played this week against Dinas Powys and Penarth Windsor, the club will be looking to secure the points needed to guarantee promotion as they look to finish the season on a high.

Club finals day will be held on Sunday, September 2 with competitive matches being played in both the morning and the afternoon and all members and spectators welcome.