St Thomas  90  Five Arches 60

Our second match in the Brains Cup was a tricky tie away to St Thomas in Haverfordwest. Due to a number of absences, the team was much changed from our previous game. Colin Jones and Dewi McGhee were making their Five Arches debuts and we welcomed Ken Williams for his first game of the season. We had beaten St Thomas in our last league match so they were  looking for revenge. On rink 2 Lee and his rink of the two Kens and John were involved in a very tight game. Leading by one after ten ends , the game swung back and forth but the Five Arches quartet hung on to win by that one shot. Unfortunately this was the highlight of the night. Alex with Dai, Tony and Gwyn had a completely different evening. After winning the first end, they were always behind. 12- 5 down at ten ends , they fought grimly on but succumbed  to a 26 shots to 11 defeat. 

Clive and his rink of John, Colin and Mike were up against a very strong St Thomas team but they battled well for the first 11 ends to trail by only one. However a strong finish by the St Thomas foursome increased their advantage and they ran out winners by 28 shots to 13. Ashley and his rink of Steve, Dewi and Tony initially looked comfortable, holding a 11 shots to 4 lead after ten ends but a fine comeback from St Thomas outfit allowed them to snatch victory on the final end to win by one.  A disappointing result for the Five Arches but understandable with our weakened team. St Thomas are a very strong team and look favourites to retain their Brains Cup trophy.

Ken Williams, John Hubbard, Ken Lloyd, Lee Richards 19               N Brown 18
Dai Rees, Tony Powling, Gwyn Beynon, Alex Watt 11                    P John 26
John Rees, Colin Jones, Mike Gouldingay, Clive Webb 13               R Harries 28
Steve Davies, Dewi McGhee, Tony Brown, Ashley Hooper 17         M Dawes 18