Haverfordwest 87 (12 pts) Five Arches 67 (2pts)
23rd April 2017
Another season begins, first up home to Haverfordwest, last year’s runners up in the league. On a sunny afternoon we welcomed two debutants to the Five Arches ranks. Peter (Inch) Thomas and Ritchie Hyland. After the usual problems with parking , Neil and his rink of John, Bill and Steve kicked off the new season on rink 1 in front of the adoring crowd. An impressive start gave them a 9 shots to 2 lead after 8 ends, unfortunately the wheels came off, dropping 11 shots in the next 3 ends saw them fall behind. After a fightback to get within 2 shots, Gareth and his Haverfordwest rink finished strongly to win by 7 shots, 22 to 15. Webbie once gain teamed up with Beano on rink 2, assisted by new boy Ritchie and veteran Five Arches player Tony , they struggled initially , trailing by 14 shots to 4 after 11 ends. Picking up 5 shots in the next 3 ends brought them right back into the game, unfortunately this was the highpoint , the Haverfordwest rink then pulled away to win by 25 shots to 14. Captain Ashley and his rink of James, Inch and Mike had a ding dong battle against ex Tenby player Alan Whitehouse. Level at 10 ends , 15 ends and 20 ends. It all came down to a last end shoot out with Alan, no doubt still angry about his parking ticket, playing a brilliant bowl to secure a 19 shots to 16 win. Finally our dream rink out on rink 4 were involved in another exceptionally close game. Simon aided and abetted by Viv, Dave and Dai started strongly and led by 7 shots to 1 after 4 ends. They were reeled in to be level after 8 ends and then pulled away strongly to lead by 17 shots to 9 after 14. Two moments of madness led them to drop 10 shots in 2 ends which saw them fall behind but a very strong finish including a superb drawing bowl from Simon with the last wood of the game let them snatch a one shot win by 22 shots to 21. Not a bad performance against a strong Haverfordwest team. Hopefully we can improve from this and go on and win the next game. Next up , home to Pembroke Dock on Saturday 29th April.
John Rees, Bill Benham, Steve Davies, Neil Dickinson 15 Gareth Barrett 22
Ritchie Hyland, Tony Powling, Huw Nicholas, Jon Webb 14 Richard O’Leary 25
Mike Day, Peter Thomas, James Criddle, Ashley Hooper 16 Alan Whitehouse 19
Viv John, David Lloyd, Dai Spencer, Simon Evans 22 PDS Jenkins 21