Five Arches 67 (2 pts) Haverfordwest 87 (12)

Another season begins, first up home to Haverfordwest, last year’s runners-up in the league. On a sunny afternoon, we welcomed two debutants to the Five Arches ranks, Peter (Inch) Thomas and Ritchie Hyland.

After the usual problems with parking, Neil and his rink of John, Bill and Steve kicked off the new season on rink one in front of the adoring crowd. An impressive start gave them a nine shots to two lead after eight ends, unfortunately the wheels came off, as dropping 11 shots in the next three ends saw them fall behind. After a fightback to get within two shots, Gareth and his Haverfordwest rink finished strongly to win by seven, 22 to 15.

Webbie once gain teamed up with Beano on rink two, assisted by new boy Ritchie and veteran Five Arches player Tony. They struggled initially, trailing by 14 shots to four after 11 ends. Picking up five shots in the next three ends brought them right back into the game. Unfortunately, this was the highpoint, as the Haverfordwest rink then pulled away to win by 25 shots to 14.

Captain Ashley and his rink of James, Inch and Mike had a ding-dong battle against ex Tenby player Alan Whitehouse. Level at 10 ends, 15 ends and 20 ends, it all came down to a last end shoot-out with Alan, no doubt still angry about his parking ticket, playing a brilliant bowl to secure a 19 shots to 16 win.

Finally, our dream rink out on rink four were involved in another exceptionally close game. Simon, aided and abetted by Viv, Dave and Dai, started strongly and led by seven shots to one after four ends. They were reeled in to be level after eight ends and then pulled away strongly to lead by 17 shots to nine after 14. Two moments of madness led them to drop 10 shots in two ends, which saw them fall behind, but a very strong finish, including a superb drawing bowl from Simon with the last wood of the game, let them snatch a one shot win by 22 shots to 21.

Not a bad performance against a strong Haverfordwest team. Hopefully we can improve from this and go on and win the next game. Next up, home to Pembroke Dock tomorrow (Saturday).

Rink scores (Five Arches first, Haverfordwest skips only) were as follows:

John Rees, Bill Benham, Steve Davies, Neil Dickinson 15; Gareth Barrett 22.

Ritchie Hyland, Tony Powling, Huw Nicholas, Jon Webb 14; Richard O’Leary 25.

Mike Day, Peter Thomas, James Criddle, Ashley Hooper 16; Alan Whitehouse 19.

Viv John, David Lloyd, Dai Spencer, Simon Evans 22; PDS Jenkins 21.

Bonus Ball

Winner of Saturday’s bonus ball was Joseph, with number 24 - congratulations.

Fixtures

Tomorrow (Saturday), the Tenby team travel to play near neighbours Saundersfoot, while the Five Arches are at home again to Pembroke Dock.

We should also have had a morning of coaching, and some bowling in the afternoon with PCBA v WBA Academy on Sunday, but it has been cancelled. We were looking forward to seeing some of the younger bowlers in action.

Wednesday, May 3, Tenby Ladies will be at home to Tasker, with an evening start of 6 pm.

Well done

Congratulations to Ben Cloake and Georgina Lloyd for getting round London and finishing the marathon - well done to you both.