Tenby 103 Tenby Five Arches 59
24th May 2015
The local derby featuring the top two teams in the Pembrokeshire division one took place at Sutton Street. Tenby being officially the home side played their usual way of parallel to the magnificent club house, erected in 1983 and opened by the then Welsh President, Vic Hubbard and senior Vice President, Tom Osbourne of Tenby and Saundersfoot.
Rink 1: for the second consecutive day, Diment’s four played on this rink. With a very good win the day before, expectation were high for the rink comprising of captain Joe Richards, Cameron White and Dion Peregrine, 13 year old son of 4 time silver bowl winner and gold cup winner, Keiran Peregrine. The Tenby four went about their job very steadily and soon built up a lead at five ends (7-2) against the Five Arches four of Mike Day, President Peter Hooper, James Criddle and Neil Dickinson. A scoring fiesta of 20 shots in 5 ends saw the lead 27-6 at 13 ends and a further strong finish by the Tenby four saw them home 33-10. Rink 2: Ryan Thomas moved from the Diment rink to skip in the absence of Craig Guymer. Teaming up with Chris Court, Steve Sheldon and Gerald Hewitt. They played against Ken Lloyd, Tom Lewis, Dai Spencer and Ashley Hooper. Falling behind at five ends (2-7) they never recovered albeit at ten ends they did close the gap (7-10). Fifteen ends (10-15), eighteen ends (13-18) and at the close (15-22).
Rink 3: Andrew Muskett, Peter Day, Aaron Lloyd played against John Rees, John Hubbard, Steve Davies and Ben Simmons. This was on paper a big challenge for the ‘Arches’ rink, but then again, sport isn't played on paper and Ben Simmons and his rink played well to stem the Muskett surge. At five ends, Muskett led by two (7-5) and still held a narrow advantage at ten ends (10-9). The next five ends went to the Simmons rink and they held a two shot advantage (12-14). Fearing for their undefeated record, the Tenby Rolls Royce rink changed gear and took 14 shots without answer to led 26-14 at the conclusion of end 20. A dropped single of the last end, but still a great 26-15 win. Rink 4: John Roberts skipped in place of missing Keiran Peregrine and together with Jon Webb, Shaun Peregrine and Mike Jackson played against the Five Arches rink skipped by the returning legend – Simon Evans. Simon played with Five Arches captain Ben Cloake, last years Captain, Tony Powling and Roger Thomas. With Shaun Peregrine In great form and Jon Webb drawing extremely well, the Tenby four took a lead at five ends (6-1). A four, three, three contributed to a further advantage to the Sharks (16-5) and upon his return Simon and his rink struggled to make any inroads into the Tenby lead, finally going down 29-12.
In conclusion, it is great for the Tenby club to have new players in Dion and Shaun Peregrine making their league debuts, which Dion playing extremely well in the Diment rink. At 13 years of age, Dion has the world of bowls truly at his feet and with the guidance of his father, himself a very experienced international player, he could go to the very top. Five Arches are very much a team to fear. Ben Cloake and his selectors have a good blend of youth and experience and the acquisition of Evans is tremendous. There are players within the Five Arches team who are more than capable of playing in the clubs’s Carruthers team and it is my opinion that if Wales introduced a 6 rink club championship instead of a 4 rink championship, there would only be one winner such is the strength of the Sharks and their close compatriots, the Dolphins.