With an away fixture to Havelock Park in the offing at the weekend the Tenby side travelled down to Milford Haven for a tough test which would prove good practice for the boys in blue. Milford has always been one of my favourite places to play; the ground nestles in behind St Katherine’s Church, the Rectory garden over-laden with crab-apples, the distant sight of Chevron’s massive chimneys and dull rumble of powerful tug boat engines. Usually as the green is such a sun trap you can often top up the ‘bowlers tan’, complete with tanned face, v neck, and arms, leaving white upper arms, body legs and watch strap marks – lovely. Sadly last Wednesday was none of these, the weather started off well and sun glasses were donned for the first time on a while, in fact it was that warm John Roberts only wore three layers! But that soon changed and the weather resumed it’s usually dull overcast expression that has summed up the summer so far.
Thankfully the bowling from the Tenby side was not on a par with the weather as Tenby gained a maximum 14 points. The game over the first two rinks, in this case 2 and 3 were tight affairs. On rink 2 Peter was again in charge of his crèche of Cammo, Joe and the rosy-cheeked Gnome (I love that nickname). Playing against the age-less Peter Collins the boys were involved in a tough affair, but they stuck to their task well and ended up winners by three shots. On rink three there was a similar tough game between John Roberts and former Gold Cup and Silver Bowl semi-finalist Roy Thomas. As a left hander our deliveries always look a little suspect but Roy has one of the most unique deliveries I’ve ever seen, holding the bowl and a 45 degree angle he launches himself off the mat send the bowl on it’s way. However as different as the delivery may be, sadly the end result is all too similar with bowl after bowl ending up on or near to the jack. John Roberts knew that he was therefore involved in a tough battle as so it was the case, right up to the 20th end when a count of 5 secured the victory. A tough battle against one of the County’s most under-rated bowlers.
On rink 4 the twins had the pleasure of playing against Donny Griffiths, one of the nicest characters in Pembrokeshire bowls. Donny has been there, seen and done it all. Skipping County winning rinks in ‘89 and ’90, County triples in ’97, ’94 and as far back as ’79, Pairs in ’84 and ’81 and the singles back in 1976, if you ever want to know who has been one of the most consistent players in Pembrokeshire over the last fours decades, here’s your man. Sadly nowadays Donny’s not longer in his pomp, the knees are shot and a stick is needed but with all that experience and the ability to still deliver a telling wood, Donny still finds himself skipping for Milford. He was up against however a rink full of confidence. Mike Jackson had one the County Rinks and Pairs, Luke Rees the County U18’s, Craig Guymer the County U25’s and Luke Guymer won the raffle! So it was that youth won out over experience on the night. Some great drawing woods by the front ends and solid play by the twins left Donny in a bit of a pickle.
Rink 5 was one of the toughest rinks to play on that night. One hand virtually straight and the other being almost un-playable. But if you want a man for a tough green then there’s none better than Spencer. He loves a tricky rink and this was right up his alley. Starting off on the first end Dai didn’t have more than 5 bad woods all game, even drawing a back toucher. However if he was good, G-Unit was better. In inspired form Gerald was up and down the green like a yo-yo, drawing shot, playing bowls out, calling the skips shots, it was literally the Gerald Hewitt show. Ably supported by Webbie and Wigan the rink again finished up top rink. Apologies for not having any scores but the score cards find themselves in the bottom of my bag and having to receipt three matches from memory is proving a step to far. I do know however that we won 14-0 and that’s all that counts.