Abergavenny did not have an MBA game last weekend as it was the finals day for all MBA competitions at St Julians Bowls club in Newport.

Abergavenny was represented in the finals by Matthew Vale and Gethin Hill, who had won through to the final of the Open Pairs competition. Their opponents were Andrew and Simon Bushell, two brothers who are members of Crosskey’s Bowls Club.

The game started well for the Abergavenny pair as they built an eight shot lead over the first third of the game. The Crosskey’s pair then began to reduce their deficit and eventually took a two shot lead when their skip played a running shot to put the jack into the ditch and score six shots.

The game was then very close over the final five ends until the last end began with Crosskeys having a one shot advantage. After the first six bowls of the last end Abergavenny held a two shot lead. This was reduced to one shot on the end, with the match scores level, before the final bowl of the game. This final bowl from the Crosskeys skip Simon Bushell was a magnificent delivery to promote their own bowl and register one shot to seal victory by 19 shots to 17. A fitting end to an excellent closely contested game played in extremely good spirit by the two pairs.

Abergavenny were also engaged in a GBL game last Saturday when Bedwelty Park were the visitors to Avenue Road. Abegavenny won on two of the three rinks to win the game by 67 shots to 46. The winning rinks for Abergavenny were those of Fred Mutimer and Bill Belli. Both rinks took control from the start and were never in danger of defeat. The rinks won by 30 shots to 15 and 25 shots to 11 respectively. The only rink to lose was that of John Marsh. After two thirds of their game they had a seventeen shot deficit but then did very well to reduce this, eventually losing by 20 shots to 12.

Abergavenny Ladies were involved in a league game last week against NAC Ladies at Avenue Road. They managed to win on both rinks to win the game by 42 shots to 30. The rink of Sian Phillips had a comfortable victory by 21 shots to 14. However, it was a much closer affair on the rink of Wendy Parker as scores were level on the penultimate end. Abergavenny then managed to secure victory by scoring five shots on the final end to win by 21 shots to 16.

This weekend Abergavenny play an MBA game against Pontymister Athletic at Avenue Road and welcome Ebbw Vale Welfare for a GBL game.