Tenby v Skewen Carruthers Shield

Marching on together

The Tenby First Team continued their unbeaten run last Saturday when they entertained Skewen in the second round of the Carruthers Shield. Skewen are a perennial qualifier in the Shield over recent years and the Tenby side knew they would be a tough nut to crack, however the side played well and came out deserving winners.  Rink 1 saw John Roberts, freshly returned from the international series in Scotland, skipping Paul “too professional” Diment and ‘the oldies’. This rink was firing on all cylinders from the first end and quickly built up a sizeable lead. Through-out the game JR controlled the head well and with the quality of bowls being delivered by Dicko, County President John Baggott and former International Paul, JR have a fairly easy time of things, that isn’t to say he didn’t play his part and indeed some of his drives we almost heavy enough to be called that, must be Paul’s influence. Mind you, from what I heard it wasn’t just JR and Paul who were driving that afternoon, Mr Ed, get your £1 ready for next week.

Rink 2 followed a similar pattern, Craig Guymer welcomed back his twin brother Luke as third, following an enforced lay-off from playing with his right hand! This meant “Tie-Rack” moved down to second with Luke “no longer growing the ‘fro” Rees remaining at lead. The rink came out of the blocks quickly and almost mirrored the effort of rink one, by quickly establishing a good lead and going on and increasing it. In fact both these two rink ended up providing the winning margin of 4 shots that afternoon winning by 26 and 22 shots respectively. Sadly apart from Luke school boy error with his choice of socks there was little to report from this rink, they all played well and won well. Save of course from Luke Guymer trying to build his big guns back up by carrying 6 ham rolls onto the green – don’t you feed him at home Pat?

It was a different story on the tricky rink three for Peter Day’s rink that afternoon. Peter’s rink has been the most successful all year, so far unbeaten, but unfortunately all good things must come to an end. In all honesty this wasn’t a case of bad bowling or bad luck but simply that on the day they couldn’t grind out the win. That said at 15 ends they were 15-4 down, only to claw their way back to only losing 17-14. In fact on the last end Peter almost played a miracle bowl to take out both Skewen woods which would have left them with 5 for a miraculous draw. Hats off t the Skewen rink though, to beat that foursome this year was no mean achievement.

Not without it’s fun moments on this rink however. As usual all matters daft feature the Club President. A bowler of such experience that he decided to walk on the green on Saturday with no measure! A bowler of such vision and concentration that he asked Peter who’s was the black wood near the jack, only to be told that all of his rink, himself included were playing with coloured bowls. Fairdoo’s, if ever I’m look for a fine, I just look to Pat! Talking about the rosy cheeked garden Gnome, to all the Tenby aces, you’ll find him up Sutton Street again on Friday night, so if you want to send Merroney up there to throw him round a bit I’m sure I’ll find 15 blokes willing to pay off his bet to watch!!

The other tough encounter of the match found Wigan’s Warriors (can’t see that sticking) facing former Short Mat International Steve Williams. This was a curious match in which the Tenby rink always seemed to be in control and indeed were in front for most of the game, but only to see them almost blow it on the last end. Dai Spencer returned to the rink, losing his D&G mantle and indeed after the first couple of ends was playing with as much aggression as he ever played. Sadly this wasn’t one of G-unit’s better games. Maybe he was worried about parking on double yellow lines, he shuld have been as he got ticketed half way through the match, and then got fined for his silliness, poor G! but with Webbie and Wigan again combining well if was only some good bowling by opposing Captain Ian Mellor that kept them in the game. Indeed there was only a few shots I  it all the way through, then, after dropping a nasty four with 2 ends to go the side dropped another single giving them a slender two shot advantage going into the last end. Now whether it was because it was the last end, last rink on and the match was won, or for any other reason the whole rink decided to fall asleep. Starting with Dai the whole four had their worst end of the afternoon and by the time of the last bowl we were 5 down with not a bowl within 4 feet and in danger of losing the game. But up stepped Muskey, wide, heavy and going nowhere his bowl managed to slam into one of Skewen’s front bowls and run on for shot, game over, three shots up, shake hands and off. Not a bad stroke of luck for a player who usually has either no luck or bad luck.

Tenby now make the short journey east to face Havelock Park of Llanelli. Havelock have already taken the scalp of multiple champions Pontrhydyfen and the side know that this is going to be a tough encounter, but getting past the next game will be another step towards the ultimate target, Finals Day in Llandod.