THE friendly start to the season continued at Rectory Road with the visit of Millwood.

Captain Phil and his selection team rang the changes again for this game to provide opportunities to as many members as possible in the early games.

On the day Millwood proved the stronger but only just managing to overhaul Penarth by four shots ( 78 - 82 ). With three Penarth rinks winning the defeat was disappointing and the usually reliable Bob Lewis and his rink were unable to cope with the opposition eventually going down by 13 to 34 shots. Winning skips were Clive Fry ( 20 - 17 ), Dave Dalby ( 25 - 18 ) and Dave Clements ( 20 - 13 ).

The losing feeling extended to the A team, when the cross city trip to Whitchurch Hospital ended in a disappointing defeat by 81 shots to 56. Four points however were earned in the reversal with Bob Hill ( 18 - 15 ) and Bob Wilmott ( 21 - 15 ) registering creditable victories on their rinks. The deficit suffered on the two other rinks was of such severity that an overall 25 shot loss ensued. Elder statesman Ron Maggs trailed 9 - 20, whilst the much educated John Whitfield was taught a sobering lesson in a 31 - 8 defeat.

Wednesday evening saw Munro Cup involvement commenced with Barry Athletic providing the opposition at Rectory Rd. A superb performance by the home side gave Penarth a resounding victory by 42 shots ( 97 - 55 ). This was an excellent start to the Munro campaign with Capt Phil declaring his intent to go one better than last year's achievement of close runners up.

Positive and consistent bowling produced winning rinks for Dave Clements ( 25 - 9 ), Colin Grant

( 29 - 14 ) and Nick Chandler ( 26 - 13 ). Clive Fry's rink let a 17 - 13 lead slip to lose by 17 - 19 when they dropped 6 shots over the last 2 ends.

Nevertheless a 12 - 2 points winning margin is a great start.