SULLY Indoor Bowls Championship Team welcomed Rhondda IBC to Sully Stadium on Saturday.

It was Rhondda's first visit to Sully for a number of years as they have been playing in the top flight for a long period of time.

Although demoted to the second division this season they still looked to have a strong team and Sully were looking forward to the game and make up for their unlucky defeat to Newport last week.

Sully made a confident start and held a seven shot advantage at the end of the fifth with the rink of Andy Morgan, Chas Burton, Rod Hudson and skip Ken McLeod getting off to a fine start racing into a 10 - 1 lead.

The rinks of McLeod, Brian Foscolo and Martin Clarke-Squires ensured Sully had an increased advantage by the end of the tenth leading by 16 shots 58 - 42. The other Sully rinks skipped by Brian Griffiths, Fred Phillips and Chris Ackland were having close tussles with the opposition, Griffiths and Phillips both being just four behind, whilst Ackland held a one shot lead.

Rhondda began a fight back between ends 11 to 15 and reduced the deficit to eight as both Griffiths and Phillips lost further ground against good opposition bowls, being 15 and eight down respectively.

The Clarke-Squires rink who had held a comfortable lead struggled to maintain their form as they lost seven shots over four ends to be just two shots ahead at end 15. During the final quarter the rink of Cogbill, Newman, Doyle and Foscolo bowled superbly to win their rink 28 - 13, also McLeod's rink continued their good form throughout the game winning 26 - 12.

The rink of John Best, Clive Collins, Steve Close and Chris Ackland fought hard all the way and managed to win 17 - 13 for another two points and Clarke-Squires rink who had held the lead right up to the 18th end dropped a three to level at 18 - 18 then dropped a two to go behind for the first time 18 - 20.

They picked up one on the penultimate end being just one behind on the final end where the opposition skip Luke Davies, with his first bowl, drew a third shot and with the opposition woods within inches of the jack Clarke-Squires was a shade wide with his final bowl leaving Davies to bowl his last wood holding the three but his wood was a touch to heavy moving the jack back to a Sully bowl for a draw and a fortunate point for the home side.

Brian Griffiths's rink for the second week in a row lost heavily 7 - 26 whilst Phillips's rink with Steve McKernan, Roy Richards and Peter Hocking who had been 8 - 17 down fought back well with Hocking and Phillips playing some excellent bowls turning heads over to fail by only two shots 16 - 18 but enough to ensure a 12 shot Sully victory 114 - 102.

With three winning rinks and a draw, Sully collected a well earned 17 points to Rhondda's five points.

Sully have another home game this Saturday against Taff Ely at 2pm.