Tenby v Saundersfoot

Tenby 107 Saundersfoot 71
18th July 2015

The Giltar Hotel sponsored Tenby team powered their way into the last eight of the Carruthers Shield last Saturday, against a very spirited Saundersfoot Team. Never in the history of the Carruthers Shield, have two sides from Pembrokeshire met in the knock out stages of the Welsh Club Championship.  Tenby navigated through two home games against Bargoed and Brynmawr whilst Saundersfoot also won their two opening games, also playing at home, against Cwmbran and Blaenrhondda. Tenby, playing their third game at home, were favorites but Saundersfoot do not pay any attention to the underdog tag and knew that in a one off game, they were more than capable of defeating Tenby.

Rink 1 saw Craig Guymer, brother Luke, Chris Court and Mike Jackson take on the foursome of Merv Dennis.  A pair of doubles for Tenby followed by a dropped count of four, evened things up at 3 ends.  The dropped four was likened to waking the sleeping beast and the Tenby four were very much in the mood to make amends.  The next few ends saw Tenby score, six shots without reply (3,1,2) before Saundersfoot replied with two scoring ends of their own (1 and 2).  At eight ends, Tenby led by six (10-4).  What can only be described as a world class display by Luke Guymer then came to the fore and the Saundersfoot rink buckled under the barrage.  The other three players in the rink assisted Luke, but the plaudits were for the former International Lead.  Winning 12 out of the next 13 ends, by a score of 25-4 (one end of a dropped four) saw a really tremendous display by the Tenby rink who romped home by 35 shots to 11.

Rink 2:  Diment was up against Saundersfoot’s top rink and knew that if he kept them quiet, then Tenby would be in pole position in the match.  That said, the Tenby fours aren’t that bad and certainly were not out to simply contain.  Cameron White and Joe Richards had easily their best performances in the Carruthers this season, and ably supported by international Ryan Thomas, the rink speed off into an 8-0 lead after four ends.  At the seven end mark, the Tenby rink led by 9-5.  Then three consecutive scores of 2, 3 and 4 extend their lead by 18-5.  This seemed to well and truly burst the Saundersfoot bubble over the whole green – especially with events on rink 1 taking effect.   Saundersfoot outscored the Tenby rink over the next 11 ends, by 8 shots to 11, but the damage had already been done and the Tenby rink could boast a very good win against Berywn Dennis’ four by 26-16.

Rink 3:  The return of the ‘wanderer’ (Wolves fan), Simon Evans teamed up with Keiran Peregrine in the absence of John Roberts.  With 4 Gold Cups and 8 Silver Bowls between them, this was not a bad replacement for the new County Singles Champion.  With two-time Five Arches Bowl semi-finalist, Jon Webb, as second and new father, Luke Rees at lead, they took on new County Triples winner, Stephen Poole.  Stephen was certainly on the top of his game and the visitors went off into a 10 shots to 2 lead.  Then at 10 ends, the back end combination stopped reminiscing about past open week glories and Wolves new signings (which didn’t take long), and promptly took a count of four shots.  Another four count soon followed and they were only a single shot behind at 15 ends and then tied things up on the next end (15-15).  A dropped count of four on the next end handed the incentive back to Saundersfoot, but then the Tenby rink also four shots to level things up again 19-19.  A single for the Tenby rink followed by a single for the Saundersfoot rink leveled things up 20-20 going into the last – exciting stuff.  However, a count of 3 against, meant Saundersfoot won 23-20. 

Rink 4:  The all stars were out on the very difficult rink four.  Despite this, and in usual style, the Lee Williamson foursome flew off into a big lead.  All level at four ends (3-3) the Williamson, Muskett, Day and Lloyd rink scored a sequence of 3, 2, 2, 3, 5 and 2 to take a commanding lead of 20-3.  Credit to the Saundersfoot rink however as they did not let their heads drop and with former Carruthers Shield Winner, Paul Blayney having an excellent game, they came right back at the Tenby four to only be behind by a single shot at the 19 end mark (22-21).  Tenby however won the last two ends with doubles to record a win of 26-21.

In conclusion a very impressive win for Tenby against a very strong challenge by our near neighbours who can  be very proud of their achievements in this competition next year. Thanks from the team to the ladies for the wonderful meal – again – after the game and also to Ken Lloyd for ensuring that the green was at its best. Next up for a place in the semi-finals are Barry Athletic who saw off the challenge of Mid Wales team, Presteigne by four shots.

Under 18 Youth Test

Congratulations to Aaron for being selected to play for Wales in the Under 18 Youth test against England on the 5th/6th September 2015

Tenby Arches Ladies v Pembroke Dock Park Ladies

Tenby Arches Ladies 6pts. Pembroke Dock Park Ladies 0
1st July 2015

The Arches ladies' form has been very indifferent this season, some bad and some very good. Last Wednesday saw the "good" side turn up against Pembroke Dock Park. The Arches ladies, who are sponsored by Tenby House, were forced to make two late changes to the side originally selected, but this did not affect the result, winning on both rinks and collecting the maximum six league points. Alison and her rink of Liz, Audrey and Lynn were in excellent form and were never behind in the game, winning by 25 shots to 9. Such was their dominance over the visitors' rink skipped by Penny Brickle that they won 10 ends in succession, picking up 16 shots on the way. Captain Carol who was going to have a day off, found herself skipping the second Arches rink of Jan, Mair and Gerry. This was a much closer contest against the Park ladies' rink skipped by Babs Rapley. At 11 ends the game was tied, the visitors then went on to take the lead and at 17 ends were two shots up. Carol's ladies fought back , scoring a five and two ones to finish the game winning by 23 shots to 19 and the match by 48 shots to 28.

Tenby v Brynmawr

Welsh Carruthers Shield 2^nd Round

Tenby 89 Brynmawr 73

After defeating Bargoed in round one, Tenby played against top Monmouthshire side, Brynmawr, from Monmouthshire.This was always going to be a difficult game against a side of vast experience, featuring many Monmouthshire County players and last seasons British Isles rinks winners and current over 60’s Welsh Pairs winners. Keiran Peregrine and his rink of Luke Rees, Jon Webb and John Roberts started well on rink 1 – and that’s an understatement.  Counts of a three and a seven following up with scoring ends, developed a lead of 17-0 after only 8 ends.  Credit to the Brynmawr four who kept of fighting and dominated the second half of the game.  A final winning margin of 22-16 with Welsh International, Keiran, having an exceptional game. Rink 2, which is the Tenby Gold Cup Final rink, is certainly a happy hunting ground for the English Singles Champion, Lee Williamson.  He knows this rink like the back of his hand, but must have been glad he wasn’t playing in a Gold Cup final against Aaron Lloyd such was I can only describe as the best leading performance I have ever seen over the first 10 ends. I must say that the second half was good but the first half was nothing short of exceptional.  A perfect foil for such a talent has to be the ‘quiet’ Peter Day who is, in my opinion, one of the best players from Pembrokeshire never to have been capped for Wales.  Andrew Muskett was concentration personified.  If any young player wants to learn how to concentrate on his own rink and not start looking at other rinks, then he is certainly the man to watch. 19-3 after ten ends which included counts of a six and five saw the rink in little danger of coming unstuck and a closing score line of 29-13 did not flatter this top rink.

Rink 3.  Paul Diment’s rink took a bit of a hammering to be fair.  Cameron White and Joe struggled all game and they were the first to admit this.  Ryan Thomas was the only player who could come out of the game with any credit and if it wasn’t for this talented player I am not sure what effect would have been on the overall result.  To be fair the Brynmawr rink – last seasons British Isles Rinks Champions – they were tremendous to a man and to say that they won because the Tenby four did not turn up would be an injustice.  Over the season, the Diment rink have been the most consistent and the result did come as a bit of a shock to the system.  Diment playing two very bad bowls on the first end, resulting in a dropped count of 6 shots certainly was a sign of things to come.  This is the first time Diment has dropped a count of six shots since 2001 when he played a friendly against the Golf Club.  At 10 ends, the rink was 4-17 down.  The Tenby rink did pick up things at this stage but once again, despite holding counts of a six and two counts of four shots, the Brynmawr skip made shot in what was quite simply a great performance by the very likeable Monmouthshire man.  Scoring over the last two ends was vital to the team, picking up four shots.  Final score being 15-27. Craig and Luke Guymer could not contain their excitement by ‘drawing’ their favourite rink four.  A count of a five on the sixth end helped in gaining a twelve shot advantage at seven ends (13-1).   The rink which also featured Mike Jackson and International Chris Court, then dropped counts over the next five ends (3, 4, 1, 4 and 1) to go behind by one at the twelfth end (13-14).  However, this rink is made of stern stuff, especially with such a great motivator as Chris Court and they finished strongly by winning seven of the last nine ends.  Final score 23-17. In conclusion, in a similar way to the Bargoed game, this was not convincing although the positives are that the team have won six of out eight rinks.  The team has potential to go all the way like they did in 2009 but they need to make small changes in order to progress any further. 

Our thanks to the support we received from the President, Peter Hooper and the Chairman, Fred Broomhead and all the Five Arches players and also Whitland players who took the time to support us. The team would like to thank most sincerely, the ladies who again made a tremendous meal and we, as players, appreciate all the work that they do on behalf of the Club not only on the Carruthers matches but throughout the season. Our thanks also to Ken Lloyd who ‘double cut’ the green – no easy task .  The green played very well and that is down to the work that Ken, Fred and of course Barry have carried out for us. Next up is a team that we are all very familiar with, Saundersfoot, who defeating Blaenrhondda.  This will be a very interesting last sixteen match and I think that this will come down to the wire with no more than a few shots at the close.  Of course our congratulations to Saundersfoot on their win and we look forward to welcoming them to our Sutton Street Headquarters where I am sure, a very tranquil game will be played out.