PENARTH Bowling Club suffered mixed fortunes in last week’s matches, with successes in the Munro Cup and the Alliance, but a very disappointing weekend for both of the Private Greens sides.

The Ladies meanwhile continued their successful season with a very comprehensive win.

Last Sunday saw yet another very enjoyable Annual President’s Charity Day at Rectory Road, when seven rinks turned out for a pleasant afternoon’s bowling, with the weather, fortunately, smiling on the proceedings.

At the end of a very successful day, president Ken Brinkworth was able to announce that, thanks to a splendid response from the membership, a handsome sum in excess of £800 had been raised for the Club’s chosen charity, the Marie Curie Hospice, so “Well done” to everyone concerned.

There were two Alliance games this week with the matches against St Josephs and St Fagans producing a couple of extraordinary results. In both cases, Penarth had three losing rinks out of four yet managed to win by virtue of the large winning margins produced by the winning four on each occasion.

In the Tuesday game against St Josephs, victory owed everything to the extraordinary 29-2 shot win for Dave Hilldrup, Derrick Musk, Don Butler, and Paul Church, which more than compensated for the 19 shot deficit on the other rinks.

It was much the same story when Penarth visited St Fagans on Thursday, when all four rinks were in trouble at the half-time tea interval but then, fortified by a mixture of PG Tips and Custard Creams, the rink of Roger Gidman, Haydn Trow, John Bowen and Ron Birkby, remarkably, turned a 6-10 deficit into a win by 27-13 after 18 ends, to snatch victory for the team by one single shot.

Such was captain Russell Daniel’s delight, he is now reported to be seriously considering free issues of “Ralgex” for next week’s match.

Wednesday’s Munro Cup visit to Llantwit Major produced yet another good win for Penarth, albeit by the narrow margin of five shots. This victory owed much to the efforts of skip Brian Brennan, with the help of Bob Lewis, Guy Thomas, and Mike Conway, and also Bob Willmott, accompanied by Haydn Trow, Rob Grant and Ron Birkby, where both rinks won by six shots.

With Nick Chandler’s four also winning narrowly, Penarth chalked up a very useful 12 points and had the added bonus of Brian surprising everyone by being the second rink to finish. A feat he last achieved when Max Bygraves was in the Top 20.

Both of Saturday’s matches were laden with disappointment for the Rectory Road men. The PG One team visited Cardiff Bowling Club for the first of this season’s PG One games, where the match ended in a comprehensive defeat. Despite fighting performances by Nick Chandler with Roger Gidman, Dick Edwards and Gareth Rosser, who finished all square, and Colin Grant, along with Haydn Trow, Dave Hilldrup and Ron Birkby who lost by one shot after being level after 20 ends.

Things were not much better at home where captain Mike England’s PG Two team came unstuck, also against Cardiff. This time, however, there was at least one winning rink, when Bob Willmott, John Whitfield, John Peterson and Russell Daniel triumphed by 29-19, to salvage two points on a largely disappointing day’s bowling all round

Sadly, two of this week’s Ladies’ fixtures were cancelled with only Thursday’s League match against Barry Central surviving.

Happily, this produced a splendid win for the Rectory Road team with victory on two of the three rinks. Pick of the bunch was the fine 24-5.25 success for Belinda Price, Kath Jenkins, captain Lorraine Palmer and Norma Duggan. With the quartet of Elizabeth Coleman, Pat Rees, Mary Bowen and Wendy Grant also winning handsomely, the successful season continues. Well done Ladies.