The Aberporth trio, pictured, won this game with a score that does no justice to the Capel Dewi players.

The losing semi-finalists met each other for the third placing and the Capel Dewi players won that 8-4 in a close contest with the three from Rhydlewis.

Unlike some finals, which turn out to be damp squids, this one proved worthy of the name. Every end led to a single wood victory, or an “end played, no score” draw.

The final result after nine ends was 5 – 3 to Aberporth, so Cory, Rhian and Bill will represent us as our number one triples team, along with the Penrhiwllan and Capel Dewi players.

Cardigan Short Mat Bowls

Experience wins out at Junior competition

The Cardiganshire Short Mat Bowls Association held their Junior Pairs competition on Saturday with a great turn out of enthusiastic youngsters representing their clubs.

Despite the competition being the first for many of the players, the standard was incredibly high. It was, however, experience which won the day with last years county and national pairs winners, Cory Williams and Gethin Davies from Aberporth, taking the title in a close run final against Rhydlewis pair, Carwyn Davies and Natasha Roberts.

Cardigan Short Mat Bowls

Cory takes the Title

A total of twenty-one Juniors went to Aberporth Village Hall on the 16th January. They ranged in age from 8 to 16. The youngest came from Capel Dewi and had only been playing for four weeks. This didn’t stop him winning his first game 14 – 0 though, which must have made the others sit up and take notice. There were seven groups and the winners went through, with the best runner-up into a knock-out session.

In the semi-final games, Rhydlewis’s Carwyn Evans met Gethin Davies of Aberporth whilst on the other mat Aberporth’s Cory Williams, met John Evans of Penrhiwllan. It was Carwyn who met Cory in the final, which turned out to be a very competitive affair with both of them even after the allotted number of ends.

In the extra end the tension must have been great as right at the end, it looked as though Carwyn was safe – holding shot and with Cory seemingly no chance of getting to the jack. But we know what this game is like, it’s not over until the last wood has been played. Cory, playing in what will be his last Junior game, played his wood with just the right amount of extra weight managing to capture the end and the title. Well done Carwyn, and well done Cory – Mum is very proud – I know she told me so!

Cardigan Short Mat Bowls

Move over Cory, it's Mum’s turn on the Podium

Last Saturday, at Penrhiwllan Hall, an expectant crowd of ladies (I’m going to be ribbed for that!) gathered in Penrhiwllan’s Village Hall to play the Open Ladies Pairs competition. Put into two groups to play for a place in the final, an exciting day of bowling ensued. A very competitive day it turned out, as in one group, Penrhiwllan’s Ella Cook and Nesta Davies had the same number of points won, and the same number of woods for and against, as Janet Fleming and Gwenda Evans of Capel Dewi. Eric Harries, the organiser of these things, then had to use the number of ends won to decide who was the winner of this group, and it was the Capel Dewi pair who went on to the final, meeting Rhian Williams (Aberporth) and Jean Jones (Penrhiwllan).

The two ladies from Capel Dewi played well against the experience pair of Rhian and Jean, but had to settle for second place. Title winners were Rhian and Jean. I should imagine the mantelpiece in the Williams home must have had an extension by now.

Another record was set in this competition. Eric has been organising these competitions for seventeen years now – since before any of the Juniors were born – and he has never had the case of a team drawing all of their round-robin games. Eileen Bennett and Kate Flinn of Cilgerran drew all their games! So there you are Cilgerran – a special prize for the club!

2nd place, Open Pairs
Capel Dewi’s John Evans and Peter Fleming

3rd place, Open Pairs
Llandygwydd's Rhys Beattie and Davina Muir

4th place, Open Pairs
Pencnwc's Neil and Pat Immins

There were thirty-two pairs of players meeting at Cardigan Bowling Centre on 13th February in an Open Pairs competition sponsored by Archi-Tech of Cardigan.

Initially playing in eight sets of ‘round-robin’ games, the eight winners then went through to a knock-out competition.

Just for a change, there were two teams from Llandygwydd Club who got into this latter stage and David Beattie and John Davies were still basking in their victory over pre-match favourites Paul Edwards and Steve, not-so-reliable, Reynolds. However, they then failed to impress visitors from Pembrokeshire, Dave Brittain and Mark Havard, who beat the locals 9 – 6 in their quest to improve on last year when they were runners-up.

The other pair from Llandygwydd, Davina Muir and Rhys Beattie (sorry peeps, there is another one), had greater success by beating Ella Cook and Nesta Davies of Penrhiwllan 10 – 5.

Another pair from Penrhiwllan, Derrick Rees and Meurig Thomas, also fell, at this stage, to Capel Dewi’s John Evans and Peter Fleming – victors by one shot.

Finally it was Pencnwc’s roaming pairing of Neil and Pat Immins who took out Aberporth’s Gethin Davies and Jonathan Preece by 8 shots to 7 - an unusual thing these days not to see Aberporth featuring strongly in a competition. Perhaps their trophy cabinet is too full!

In the two semi-finals, Davina and Rhys met their match in the pair from Capel Dewi in a close game that ended up 9 – 8 whilst the visitors from ‘south of the river’ had a commanding 10 -2 victory over Mr and Mrs Immins.

The third-place game was then played between Davina and Rhys and the Immins, and the Llandygwydd pair managed to secure a comfortable victory by winning 10 – 5.

In the final, Dave Brittain and Mark Harvard from Newport secured their win against John and Peter from Pencnwc in a closely fought game that ended in an 8 – 5 result for the men from Pembrokeshire. Our congratulations go to them with commiserations to Capel Dewi’s heros.

Winners, Open Pairs
Dave Brittain and Mark Harvard from Newport