Last Saturday Abergavenny Bowls Club began their WBA cup campaign with their first game in the “round robin” section of the tournament, when Pontymister Welfare were the visitors to Avenue Road.

In a closely contested game, it was only towards the end that Abergavenny established a comfortable lead that enabled them to register a victory by 80 shots to 65.

Matthew Vale’s rink built a 21 shot lead by the tenth end. This lead allowed them to keep the upper hand and register a win by 31 shots to 12.

The rink of John Vale was involved in a close game as they held a two shot lead after twelve ends. They then took control over the last nine ends to establish their superiority and score twelve shots against their opponents three, to win by 24 shots to 13.

Gethin Hill’s rink had an eight shot deficit after 12 ends, conceding 11 shots over the preceding seven ends. They then reduced their opponents lead, to lose by 18 shots to 16.

The rink of Peter Stahl could never get into their game thanks to some good bowling by the Pontymister rink. After 11 ends the Abergavenny rink was 14 shots in arrears, having scored on one end only. The game was more even from this point but the Pontymister Welfare rink ran out comfortable winners by 22 shots to nine.

The GBL team played a league game at Belle Vue last weekend. With several regular players not being available they could manage to win on one rink only and so were defeated by 53 shots to 41.

The victorious Abergavenny rink was that of Jeff Gibbon who held the lead throughout the game to win by 14 shots to 11. The rink of Neil Roberts could not get into the game and were defeated by 19 shots to nine. John Marsh’s rink fought back from an early large deficit to lose by only five shots, 23 shots to 18.

Despite the inclement weather conditions Abergavenny Ladies enjoyed a three rink triples friendly game at Croesyceiliog last week. Unfortunately they were defeated on two of the three rinks, losing the game by 34 shots to 31. The successful Abergavenny rink was that of Wendy Parker who won their game by 14 shots to nine. The rinks of Shirley Williams and Mary Evans began their games well but finished up by losing 11 shots to nine and 14 shots to eight respectively. Tomorrow, four members of Abergavenny Ladies will play in the County rinks competition at Pontyfelin.

This weekend Abergavenny will play their second WBA Cup game at Six Bells and welcome Caerleon to Avenue Road for a GBL game.