LAST weekend 20-year-old Jack Vale was selected for his first full county cap to play for Monmouthshire in the Welsh County Championship finals at Llandrindod Wells.

He was part of the county team that won their semi-final against South Glamorgan by 129 shots to 104. Unfortunately, they lost to Mid Glamorgan in the final by 117 shots to 106.

This is a tremendous achievement by Vale - the first Abergavenny player to be selected for the county in 30 years.

The club would like to congratulate Vale for his selection and hope it is the first of many caps for him.

Abergavenny Bowls Club have played three MBA games over the past two weeks. The first of these was against Croeyceiliog at Avenue Road. Unfortunately, Abergavenny could win on only one rink and consequently lost the game by 85 shots to 66.

The successful rink for Abergavenny was that of Gethin Hill, taking control of the game in the second half to win by 24 shots to 13. Jack Vale’s rink was in contention until the halfway stage of the game but the Croesyceiliog rink then forged ahead to win by 20 shots to 13.

It was much the same story on the rink of Matthew Vale. They could never get their noses in front and lost by 20 shots to 16. Anthony Moriarty’s rink could never get into the game after conceding 13 shots on the first four ends, losing by 32 shots to 13.

It was a much better story when Abergavenny travelled to Caerleon to play a rearranged game. They won on three of the four rinks to win the game by 90 shots to 73.

On the rinks of Matthew Vale and Jack Vale, they both turned the situation round after being behind at the halfway stage of the games. At that stage, each rink had a deficit of five shots but managed to reverse the situation to complete victories by 26 shots to 21 and 20 shots to 19 respectively. Gethin Hill’s rink was in command from the start and completed a comfortable victory by 29 shots to 7. The rink of John vale suffered a degree of misfortune during their game, which led to defeat by 26 shots to 15.

The final game of the three was at Avenue Road against top of the league team Pontymister Athletic. In what was probably their best performance of the season Abergavenny won on two rinks, tied on another and were defeated on the remaining rink. This resulted in victory for Abergavenny by 80 shots to 69.

The rink of Gethin Hill outscored their opponents in the second half of the game to win by 24 shots to 14. Jack Vale’s rink was behind for most of their match but managed to turn round the situation by scoring nine shots on the final three ends to win by 20 shots to 15. The rink of Keith Richards was six shots down with three ends to play but then scored the required number of shots to tie their game 18 shots all. Anthony Moriarty’s rink conceded 12 shots over the first four ends. However, they stuck to their task and reduced the deficit to be defeated by only four shots, 22 to 18.