THE bubble of promotion that has been floating over Rectory Road green in recent weeks was well and truly burst at Cardiff Athletic on Friday night.

Penarth travelled there in hope of securing a positive victory and a good haul of points to reinforce their league position.

Despite the best efforts of a somewhat weakened team only 2 points were gained on the night.

Bob Horne, Phil Crocker, Nick Thomas and Bob Willmott snatched the points on the very last end going into it with the scores level at 17 all.

Cardiff were holding a winning position when Bob, with his last wood removed the shot would and converted the end to a 2 shot win.

The three other rinks all went down producing a final and disappointing loss by 22 shots, 60-82.

The possibility of promotion disappeared with that result.

Saturday saw a home fixture with Sully Sports, when stand in captain Russell Daniel attempted to pick up the pieces.

A good win was needed to revive the flagging ego evident.

A good spirited and enjoyable game of bowls ensued with Penarth gaining 10 points winning 2 and losing 2 rinks. Final overall score was 79-68.

Once again Bob Horne was to the fore assisted by Phil Crocker, Ken Thorne and Terry Buckingham al of whom bowled well to register a 23 - 15 win.

Having raced into an 11 - 0 lead after 5 ends the four never lost momentum and were always the masters on the day.

In equal masterful mood were Nick Chandler, Jack Beanland, Derek Musk and Mike Conway who despite trailing early gained a sufficient grip to run out victors by 23 - 17.

Having recovered sufficiently from his 70th birthday celebrations, Clive Fry was in remarkable spirits ( mainly Gin ) on the green but just failed to hold off a late challenge to forfeit a 16 - 11 lead to eventually lose out by 1 shot ( 17 - 18 ).

He continued in good spirits in the post match food and drink.

Dave Plank's rink also went down by 16 - 18.

A late comeback was not quite enough to overhaul a 6 shot deficit on the 19th end.

Having wrapped up the title, the Ladies concluded their successful Afternoon League fixtures with a disappointing one shot reversal against Murch.

With two rinks losing on the day, it was left for Wendy Grant to skip with Betty Jones, June Williams and Christina Church assisting and run up a convincing 21 - 7 win.

Unfortunately the other 2 rinks just afiled to do enough to add to the shot surplus going down by 12 - 17 and 12 - 22.

The final score adding up to a 45 - loss.

However the obvious regret for losing was quickly diminished, knowing that the title was safe in their hands.