AFTER the high of the previous week when Gethin Hill and Matthew Vale won the Welsh Open Pairs championship, Abergavenny Bowls Club were brought back to earth with a bump when they played their penultimate MBA game of the season at RTB Ebbw Vale last Saturday.

Unfortunately they lost on all four rinks and were defeated by 108 shots to 46. This defeat is likely to result in the club playing in the second division of the MBA next season.

The nearest any of the Abergavenny rinks came to victory was the rink of Gethin Hill, who won ten of the 21 ends in their defeat by 22 shots to 16. The three other rinks never got into contention in their games, all suffering comprehensive defeats. Rink scores were Ieuan Jenkins 9-29, Matthew Vale 11-26, and Robert Poynter 10-31.

To add to the defeat for the MBA team, Abergavenny GBL team also suffered defeats in the two games that they have played in the last week.

The first of these was at Ebbw Vale Welfare where they were defeated on two of the three rinks to lose the game by 60 shots to 45.

The only successful rink for Abergavenny was that of John Woodier, winning 12 of the 21 ends to win the game by 17 shots to 14. Other rink scores were John Marsh 13-27 and Derek Bailey 15-19.

The second GBL game was played against Blaina at Avenue Road. Although Abergavenny managed to win on two of the three rinks, they suffered overall defeat by 61 shots to 54.

The rinks of Fred Mutimer and John Marsh were victorious as they both took control of their games in the second half to win by 24 shots to 16 and 22 shots to 17 respectively. The rink of Derek Bailey was 13 shots down after eight ends and went on to be defeated by 28 shots to eight.

This Saturday Abergavenny will play their final EMBA game of the season against Chepstow at Avenue road. This game will decide the destination of the EMBA championship for the 2016 season.

Then on Sunday they play a rearranged MBA game against Crosskeys at Avenue Road. The GBL team are also engaged in a league game on Sunday at Pontypool Park.