PENARTH Bowling Club’s New Year programme of matches got into full swing last week with matches against Murch and Llantwit Major.

Wednesday’s visitors for the first men's match of 2016 were good friends and near neighbours Murch Bowling Club and, on this occasion the clash was enlivened by a new format whereby the teams were mixed so that each rink had two members from Murch and two from Rectory Road.

In the event this arrangement provided the most competitive of games with the B team, captained by Penarth’s Alan Stockham snatching victory by 61 shots to 60 over the A team, captained by Murch’s Ian Robinson.

Both sides produced two winning rinks with the B side’s Colin Grant, aided by D Perkins, R Fudge and Lawrie Brooke just edging out Derek Blainey’s four and Dave Dalby, in company with Mike England and those “terrible twins” of the Murch, Derek Davies and Doug Bateman seeing off the challenge of Terry Phillips.

For the A team, Roger Mauchline with the help of Tony Thomas, Derrick Musk and J Flye just squeezed through against Ron Maggs, whilst the A team’s best performance came from Ian Robinson, T Hockley, Ron Birkby and Phil Davies who inflicted a rare defeat on Rectory Road star Bob Lewis.

Saturday’s visit from Llantwit Major for a mixed match was eagerly awaited at Rectory Road as the visitors usually produce a strong performance and last week’s game proved no exception as, once again, Llantwit pushed the home side all the way and, though Penarth won in the end, the 13 shot winning margin belied the excellent contribution of the visitors.

Bob Lewis returned to top form with a vengeance in this one and, aided by Viv Duckers, Joan Lewis and Alan Stockham romped home by 29-13.

Things were much tighter on the other two home winning rinks with Phil Davidge, Don Butler and Sandra Roberts edging it by 14.25-14 and Mike England, with Jill Gaskell, Pat Bartley and Ron Birkby eventually prevailing by 19-14 after a hard fought battle.

The fourth Penarth rink sank without trace to go down by 12-23 with “Bowen The Books” describing the game as “One of two halves...it started badly and then got considerably worse”, with the visitors employing some dubious practices such as drawing nearer to the jack than the opposition.

Well done Llantwit Major, Penarth Bowling Club look forward to your next visit.