Pembroke Dock 73  Five Arches 74

After a couple of weeks off, the Five Arches resumed their First Division season with an away trip to Pembroke Dock. We were hoping to build on our good start to the season but Pembroke Dock is a hard place to get any sort of result so we were realistic in our expectations. Ashley with Ken, Tony and Mike had a great game against opposing captain Richard on rink 1. The game was tied 8 shots all after 10 ends and 17 all after 17 ends but a good finish from the Pembroke Dock quartet allowed them to edge away to win by 24 shots to 17. Rink 2 saw Clive and his rink of Joe, John and Harold hoping to add to their unbeaten start to the season. However they were drawn against Pembroke Dock legend Les Davies  so it was not going to be easy. The home rink had a narrow lead of 9 shots to 5 after 10 ends, by the 16th the score had advanced to 16 shots to 11 in Pembroke Dock's favour. Another strong finish by Les and his team  increased their lead and they  finished winners by 24 shots to 12. 

Bucking the trend on rink 3 were Ray and his rink of Ben, Steve and John. Leading by 14 shots to 3 after 10 ends, they continued in a similar vein after the break to run out comfortable winners by 31 shots to 4. This was a very fine performance dropping shots on only 4 ends is remarkable. Ray and his team had given the Five Arches a chance to snatch victory and Tony and his rink of Stuart, Jim and Peter responded well to this challenge. It was looking bleak after 18 ends , 21 shots to 8 down but a well-timed finish,  picking up 6 shots in the remaining 3 ends including a very important 3 on the last , gave the Five Arches an overall win by the smallest of margins of 74 shots to 73. Another good performance from the whole team. An interesting game next , against reigning champions Tenby.

 Mike Gouldingay, Tony Powling, Ken Lloyd, Ashley Hooper 17    Richard Jones 24
Joe Hewitt, John Hubbard, Harold Ebdon, Clive Webb 12               Les Davies 24
John Rees, Steve Davies, Ben Simmons, Ray Taylor 31                    Brian Cale 4
Stuart Askew, Jim Taylor, Peter Hooper, Tony Brown 14                Brian Dowling 21