PENARTH Bowling Club’s fortunes took a turn for the better last week with a much improved performance in the WBA, a winning start to the PG2 season, and largely successful matches for the Alliance and Ladies sides.

The Alliance match against Penylan ended in a good win for the Rectory Road men by 51 to 43. The outstanding rink on this occasion consisted of Paul Church, John Bowen, Nick Thomas and skip Dave Clements (20-11).

Success was assured by the Dave Plank rink where Dave, with Neil Gaskell, Peter Small, and Phil Davidge prevailed by two shots.

Thursday’s Alliance game at Pontyclun was a very tightly fought encounter with the result in doubt to the very end.

In the final analysis, Penarth went down by just one shot overall despite a fighting performance from Bob Willmott, John Whitfield, captain Brian Fisher and Trevor Jenkins (18-12) and a gritty 18-16 win for Roger Gidman, Haydn Trow, Wilf Blackmore and Elvin John.

Saturday’s WBA match with Cowbridge proved to be a much happier performance than last week’s debacle and the match with Cowbridge saw Penarth very much back on form with a 99-52 win.

The top dogs on this occasion were undoubtedly the Dave Dalby foursome where Dave very ably backed up by Jack Beanland, Mike England and Dave Plank bowled their way to a massive 37-6 victory.

Clive Fry with Alan Stockham, Phil Davies and Ron Birkby were also prominent with a 24-10 success and Nick Chandler helped by Bob Willmott, Haydn Trow and Mike Conway ground out a good 23-19 win to set the seal on a very satisfactory performance.

Sunday saw the opening PG2 match of 2016 against Guest Memorial, from Merthyr. In perfect conditions a highly competitive match ensued, played in the very best of spirits throughout.

On the day, the narrow margin of victory owed much to the two winning rinks where Bob Hill, John Whitfield, Brian Hocking and Berwyn Lansley (25-17) and Ron Maggs, Reg Jones, Ron Birkby and captain Russell Daniel (22-16) bowled well throughout.

However the fighting qualities of the other two Penarth rinks did much to ensure success with Brian Brennan’s four clinching victory on the very last end of a highly absorbing match.

The Ladies Double Rink match against Penarth Windsor on Tuesday could hardly have been closer. After an extremely close-fought game, Penarth emerged victorious by a single shot, despite Penarth being six shots to the good with just two ends left.

Captain Sue Croll skipped the successful Rectory Road rink and, in company with Joan Lewis, Mary Bowen, and Diana Willcocks prevailed 15-11. The Evening League match against Roath Park saw Penarth Ladies very much in control with a winning margin of 33-15. Betty Jones, Wendy Grant, Jill Gaskell and Christina Church won by 16-9 and Belinda Price with Joyce Allen, Barbara Brown and Lorraine Palmer were also well ahead at 17-9.

Sadly, it was back to earth with a bump on Thursday as the Afternoon League match at Cadoxton turned out to be a very forgettable outing. Penarth never really got to grips with the heavy and somewhat uneven Cadoxton green and sunk to a substantial 30 shots to 64 loss.