For the first game of the season in the Division 2 Private Greens, the Club side travelled away to Guest Memorial in Merthyr in what was to prove to be the closest of matches. The accolade for top rink of the day goes to the rink skipped by Rob Grant, with team captain John Seaford playing lead, ably accompanied by Dave Curtis and Kevin Mahoney, who played exceptionally well. They won 15 of the 21 ends to win the rink with a magnificent score of 32-11. However, an excellent Guest Memorial rink ran up a similar win against Jeff Wright’s quartet on the neighbouring rink. After twelve ends Guest Memorial had raced into a commanding 19-3 lead before The Rom pulled back 6 shots on the next two ends to make it 19-9 to the home side. It looked like a fight back might be on the cards only for Guest Memorial to win five of the remaining seven ends to win the rink 27 shots to 11.
The Rom were clearly up against it on rink 3, where despite scoring a 6 on the fourth end the rink skipped by Brian Griffiths only led the game for one end. At 16-10 down after thirteen ends Paul Gray, Mike Simmonds, Graham Cogbill and Griffo hit something of a purple patch to win four successive ends and bring the score to 16-15, only to see their opponents to come back to win the last four ends and win the rink 20 shots to 15.
With the overall aggregate scores level, the result on the final green was to prove crucial. Mike Doyle’s rink, led by Ben Curtis at lead, alongside Matt Gershenson and Clive Collins fought tooth and nail to match their opponents in a game that was nip and tuck throughout its duration. Neither side was able to sustain a lead, but going into the 21st, and final end, the home side held the lead by 21 shots to 20, until the end was decided by the final bowl of the game. The Rom were holding one shot to level both the game and the match, when Mike Doyle played the final bowl of the game to double the one-shot lead, and so win the game 21-20, and the aggregate 80-79.
With two rinks won, and the aggregate claimed, Barry Romilly came away from Guest Memorial with a 12-2 victory.
Having won their first game of the season in Division 5 of the Private Greens at Pentyrch last week, this week the club’s A side played their second game of the season at home to Mackintosh. Everyone was hopeful that the rain that was forecast might hold off, but unfortunately that wasn’t to be, and the game was a battle against the elements as much as the opposition. The conditions were so desperate that both team captains agreed the match should be foreshortened to fifteen ends.
Rink of the day was the skipped by Mel Newman ably assisted by Jerry Daly, Jeff Wyatt and Kelvyn Lewys who scored consistently to lead 15-2 going into the eleventh end. Mackintosh made a brave fight of it to score in each of the remaining ends, but it wasn’t enough to threaten the lead held by the boys from The Rom, who ran out victors by 15 shots to 7. Hard on their heels was Fossy’s rink who developed an impressive 11-4 lead by the tenth end. Their lead was cut to two when the Mackintosh lads scored a five on the next end. However, Paul James, Roger Jones, Gary Williams and Fossy their composure to pull away from their opponents to secure a 17-10 victory.
While all was going well on rinks two and three, things weren’t going The Rom’s way over on rink 5, where Dave Francis, accompanied by Russ Harbron, Dave Lougher and Keith Pearson found the going tough against a very good Mackintosh rink, losing all but three ends, and the game 21-4. The last rink left on the green was Dave Noble, Paul Rebane and Nick Parry, skipped by team captain, Steve Bell. It was a very close game, with the lead changing hands throughout. Going into the fifteenth and final end the scores were locked at 10-10, with the aggregate at 48-46 in Mackintosh’s favour. It was all or nothing on this end, but thankfully all four bowled beautifully to secure the end by four shots, a score that took the aggregate to 48-46 in The Rom’s favour. With three rinks won, and the aggregate in the bag the A side also recorded a 12-2 victory, and so win their second match in successive weeks.
All in all, a good week for Barry Romilly, and a handsome start to the season.