Tenby v Presteigne

Tenby v Presteigne
June 18 2016

CARRUTHERS VICTORY
The Giltar Hotel sponsored Tenby team continued their Carruthers Shield campaign with a fine 90-74 victory over a strong Presteigne side at the Sutton Street green on Saturday. Included in the visitors’ line-up was Welsh international star and multi Commonweath Games medallist Robert Weale, who was drawn against Tenby’s own former English champion Lee Williamson. The pair were involved in a battle royal until Weale played a wonder bowl to ditch the white with his very last wood and earn his rink a one-shot victory. It was a similar story on the adjoining inside rink where Kieron Peregrine’s four also went down by the odd shot after another closely fought contest. But the two narrow defeats were more than compensated for on the outside rinks, with the Guymer twins, aided by Mike Jackson and Chris Court, always in control in their game as they ran out comfortable winners. Likewise on the show rink, where the large crowd watching on the balcony witnessed Andrew Muskett skip his rink of Aaron Lloyd, Peter Day and captain Paul Diment to a clear victory over another member of the Weale family.As a result of their win, Tenby will now travel to play Loughor in the next round on July 2 as they continue their bid to make it to the Welsh finals at Llandod yet again.

Haverfordwest v Tenby

Haverfordwest  73 (4 Points) v Tenby 81 (10 Points)
14th June 2016

The first of two league games in one week started a few Tuesday’s ago (14^th June) for the Tenby Sharks.  The last time these two teams met resulted in a slender 2 shot victory at Tenby’s Sutton Street HQ where they haven’t lost in the league since 2014 – at the hands of Haverfordwest .  The Selectors decided on a change of team and positions this game and on Rink 1, Kieran Peregrine, winner of 4 silver bowl titles was joined by Paul Diment, with 2 silver bowls to his name.  They were joined by Liam Price, current holder of the Five Arches Bowl and Luke Rees, former Tenby Club Champion.  Their opponents comprised former Welsh Indoor International and Tenby player, Alan Whitehouse.  The Tenby rink raced off to a 7-1 lead, but then Alan and his third, Bill Jones, started playing and boy did they play, outscoring the ‘Pegs’ rink 11-1 to take the lead.  A fine finish by Tenby reduced the deficit, but still a loss of 16-20.

Next door, the galacticos continued their unbeaten run.  In fact, I cannot remember the last time they lost.  At seven ends, the three internationals of Craig, Luke and Chris joined by Welsh fours winner Mike Jackson, were 6-5 up.  Then, as is usual, a run of winning ends resulted in them extending their lead by fourteen shots over the course of six ends.   Another strong finish resulted in a 28-14 lead.  A change in personnel saw John Roberts switch from Peregrines rink to Andrew’s.  Andrew was joined by Ben Cloake and Peter Day.  The change did not seem to work as previously unbeaten Muskett, went down by 9 shots to County Team Manager, PDS Jenkins.   

Ryan Thomas continued to skip and with Joe Richards, Peter Hooper and Cameron White continued his form – promptly dropping a five shot count on the first end.  However, the likeable and talented Rhino did not let his head drop and rallied his troops.  A couple of counts of ‘five’ and ‘fours’ saw them win their rink 24-17.  In conclusion, a great win by the Tenby team.  The selectors were brave enough to change formations leading up to the big game on Saturday against Prestiegne and although they [the changes] did not work as they would have liked, another game beckons on Thursday against Saundersfoot to try new ideas.  However, it should also be remembered that Tenby still beat a very very good Haverfordwest team on their own patch and they have taken another step in retaining their league title.

Tenby v Saundersfoot

Tenby 80 (10 Points) v Saundersfoot 73 (4 Points)
16th June 2016

Thursday saw the first league game against Saundersfoot. Tenby having previously beaten them in the Carruthers Shield a few weeks previously.  Tenby continued to experiment with their team leading into the Carruthers game against Prestiegne and were grateful to a great finish once again to secure victory. Rink 1:  John Roberts returned to the rink of Peregrine with Luke Rees and Liam Price.  They played against Saundersfoot skip, Steve Dick.  A solid start after five ends, the Tenby team led 7-3 however a run of six consecutive losing ends meant they trailed 7-15 after 11 ends.  Saundersfoot continued their dominance to lead 9-20 at the sixteen end mark, but then the Tenby four rallied to win the last five ends 8-0 to close with a defeat 17-20.

Rink 2:  The unbeatable’s continued their unbelievable run by beaten the Stephen Poole rink by 26-15.   Craig and Luke together with Chris and Mike restricted their opponents to only 9 scoring ends, and when that is only counts of singles and doubles, you are in trouble against this rink who respond with threes and fives. Rink 3:  Ben Cloake, Cameron White, Joe Richards and Ryan Thomas played well against the Merv Dennis rink.  Taking a five on rink one set up things nicely but at five ends, they only led by one shot.  At fifteen ends they fell behind 14-18 but they tied things up leading into the last end (19-19).  Holding match, a huge slice of luck by the Saundersfoot skip took a double.

Rink 4:  Andrew Muskett played with Paul Diment for the first time in many a year.  11 club championships between them 6 welsh titles and a British Title, they were joined by Peter Day, a two-time County Singles Champion with 2 welsh titles to his name and himself a British Champion.  Aaron Lloyd, with two Welsh titles to his name.  They played Berwyn Dennis, in my opinion the most accomplished Saundersfoot skip – himself a Welsh International.  The Tenby rink fell behind 3-8 at seven ends with Louis Price in great form.  At fifteen ends that lead was 9-16 and all looked good for a Saundersfoot win – not only on the rink, but overall.  However, Muskett has other ideas, and like Rink 1, only lost one of the remaining ends to sneak a win 18-17. In conclusion, another close game and I must be honest in saying that I though the unbeaten run had come to an end.  However, credit again to the Tenby team who certainly know and have proved how to close out games. 

Tenby v Whitland

Tenby 89 (10 Points) v Whitland 82 (4 Points)
10th June 2016

 The Tenby team continued their league programme last Saturday against Whitland.  Currently unbeaten, Tenby went into the game firm favourites, but the Whitland Club were able to field an almost full strength team for the first time this season. Whitland started the fastest, leaded by 7 shots at the five end mark and extending it to 11 shots at the half way stage.  Whitland continued to maintain their fine start to the game and extended their lead to 16 shots coming into the last quarter of the game.  An unbelievable finish by the Sharks, over turned the lead, and went into the last end of the game, leading by 12 shots.  A dropped count of 5 resulted in a final score of 89-82 to Tenby. 

Paul Diment, on rink 1, played with Cameron White, Fred Broomhead and Joe Richards.  Diment’s indifferent start to the season continued and the rink were soundly beaten by Glyndwr Thomas who won 26-17.  Two dropped counts of five shots and a four made the most damage although at one stage the rink was 5-19 down.  A strong finish brought them back to 17-21 at the twenty end mark and the rink could be forgiven for dropping a count of five shots on the last end, as they were ‘going’ for the rink win to try and secure another two points. Things were not much better on rink 2, with Ryan Thomas, Chris Court, Dai Rees and Mike Jackson coming up against Steve Reese’s foursome.   With Diment 5-19 down at twelve ends, Ryan was one shot worse at 5-20 at the same stage.  The rink did make inroads into the deficit and finished 16-25 at the close. 

Kieran Peregrine, John Roberts, Liam Price and Ben Cloake were all on fine form against Colin Wynn.  This rink kept Tenby in the game and led 22-6 at twelve ends.  Colin’s rink won 3 consecutive ends, resulting in 9 shots to reduce the Tenby rink’s lead to a mere 7 shots.  With this run, it did seem the Tenby challenge would be over.  Over, the rink responded brilliantly by winning all the remaining ends and scoring 13 shots in the process.  Final score 35-15. Muskett, Day and Lloyd – unbeaten this year - were joined by Peter Hooper against Dan Jenner.  The rink fell behind at ten ends by 2 shots and went behind on 18 ends by three shots 13-16.  Then two singles plus shot of the day by Muskett made a 6 shot count to record a winning scoreline 21-16. 

 In conclusion, what a great finish by Tenby.  This game was very similar to the game played against Haverfordwest earlier in the year.  However, it could be argued that like Haverfordwest, the better team lost.  If it was not for a very strong finish over the last three or four ends, the day would have belonged to Whitland and congratulations to them for such a performance. Saturday, Tenby face the mighty Prestiegne and go into the game as firm underdogs.  Prior to this they face Haverfordwest  (Tuesday) and Saundersfoot (Thursday) and players will be moved into positions ready for the challenge of Prestiegne.