OVER 50 full and affiliated members left Rectory Road early on October 6 en route, as they thought, for the Toorak Hotel at the TLH Leisure complex in Torquay. However after almost 90 minutes of touring the centre of Cardiff, they ended up stranded at the services of junction 33 having travelled approximately six miles.

Their bus had developed a fault and organiser John Whitfield discovered two of the party were still in Penarth. An instant and unscheduled coffee break awaited the arrival of a new bus and missing tourists.

The journey resumed at around 11am with some trepidation that the 3pm first game start time would be achieved. It was as they pulled in to the hotel car park with 30 minutes to spare - not the best build up for these finely tuned athletes.

Auriol Club (Essex) were the opponents and the usual Welsh/English banter ensued as Penarth sprinted into a 21-9 lead after five ends. Bob Lewis, Nick Chandler and Reg Jones lead their rinks competently to win 17 - 5, 16 - 5 and 22 - 5. However the vociferous Bob Hill with Belinda, Christina and Paul listening intently were not able to complete a clean sweep, going down 11 - 13. A satisfying overall win by 66 to 30.

The evening game against Jeans Jesters recorded another solid win by 67 to 48, with Derek Blainey (19 - 9) and John Bowen (19 - 8) securing the win. The Phil Davidge and Haydn Trow rinks dropped critical shots on the last two ends to both lose by one shot. Haydn immediately booked a roll up session with Phil to improve their skip skills.

Auriol again provided the early Tuesday challenge with another win by 64 - 44 being recorded. Yet again John Bowen lead the way with a resounding 21 - 7 win, ably assisted by wife Mary, Lorraine and Lawrence.

The practice that Haydn and Phil had together obviously worked as they both turned defeat into victory winning by 19 - 11 and 13 - 10. A very unhappy Don Shirley saw his rink snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by dropping a four on the last end to go down 11 - 13. Grumpy hardly described the mood.

Four consecutive games against a strong Minehead (plus guest rinks) followed through Wednesday and Thursday, with only one victory being recorded. The first of the games saw Derek Blainey and the sprightly Roy Greenslade register wins of 19 - 5 and 19 - 6, to help offset the pounding (22 - 11) suffered by a very off colour Nick Chandler rink. His previous late night with rink mates Viv, Mike and Colin may have been the reason. A team win of 59 - 45 settled things somewhat. Reg Jones will want to forget the five shots they dropped on the last two ends to throw away a winning lead.

The Minehead defeats were 41 - 54, 41 - 42 and 48 - 56. Custodian of the scorecards, John Whitfield was quick to record that without the guest rinks, it could have been a different story.

The final game on Thursday afternoon against Auriol gave Penarth satisfaction to record another win (50 - 42) and complete a most enjoyable tour. New and old friendships were cemented in a very convivial atmosphere, with some highlights being enjoyed by all.

Thanks must go to John and Sandra for the superb organisation and to the tourists all of whom had something to offer the trip.

Apparently John confirms that it is ''same time - same place'' for 2015.

Nick Chandler