THE ladies of Gilwern Bowling Club played their final two league games of the season last week, reports JOHN WHOMERSLEY.

The first of these was an Evening League game away at Abertillery, where they finished this programme of fixtures with a flourish, winning on two of the three rinks for a victory by 43 shots to 40.

The rink of Anne Konieczny took command from the start building a ten-shot lead and then consolidating that lead to win by 17 shots to eight.

Gwen Axford’s rink built a lead over the first 12 ends and then resisted a late surge by their opponents to win by 16 shots to 11.

Although the rink of Pam Healy was in contention for the first half of their game, the Abertillery rink took control during the second half to win by 21 shots to 10.

Unfortunately, it was a different story in the final game of the season in The Afternoon League against Merthyr West End at Gilwern.

The visitors won on all three rinks to record a victory by 71 shots to 38.

Sheila Howells’ rink was in the lead after four ends but then conceded 19 shots over the next eight ends, which led to a defeat by 23 shots to 17.

Jill Howells’ rink was level with four ends to play but their opponents then scored 12 shots over those ends to win by 26 shots to 15.

Pam Healy’s rink never got into their game after the first five ends, suffering a defeat by 22 shots to six.

And it was a disappointing day on Saturday for the men of Gilwern’s MBA team when they visited Crickhowell for a league game.

They could manage to win on only one rink, suffering a comprehensive defeat by 101 shots to 62.

The successful rink for Gilwern was that of Mike Axford which was involved in a closely contested game.

However, the Gilwern rink managed to secure victory by scoring five shots on the final two ends to win by 22 shots to 15.

Kevin G Davies’ rink was level with their opponents after 13 ends but the Crickhowell rink then scored 12 shots and conceded only one to win by 23 shots to 12.

The rinks of Mike Fulton and Richard Davis had a deficit of 18 shots and 12 shots respectively after the first seven ends, and could not recover from these early setbacks, therefore were defeated by 36 shots to 13 and 27 shots to 15.

This week the MBA team will play a league game at home against PILCS on Saturday (16th), followed by a visit to Caldicot the following day (Sunday 17th) for an EMBA league game.