PENARTH'S PG2 side again hogged the headlines last weekend as they convincingly beat St Fagans by 21 shots to secure promotion to Division 1.

The 12 points earned on Saturday gives them a total of 176 points and only Ely Valley has any chance of overhauling them to snatch the title away.

A season of consistent quality bowling has paid dividends for Captain John Whitfield and his merry men. Nick Thomas, Guy Thomas, Bob Willmott and Dave Holdaway produced the best result on the day with a 25-14 victory.

Brian Brennan, Mike England, Bob Lewis and Haydn Trow almost matched this by winning 25-15, with a 10 shot superiority.

Dave Clement produced a last gasp one-shot win by picking up a four on the very last end to squeeze through 20-19.

Lawrence Brooke, Neil Gaskell and Dave Murphy all assisted magnificently to bag the win.

Poor old Colin Hicks aided by John Whitfield, Billy Croll and Alex Forsyth just failed to pinch a win, as they fought back gamely from a 7-17 deficit on the 14th end to fail narrowly by 1 shot in a final score of 18-19. The overall score of 88-67 was satisfying indeed.

Congratulations are also due to Christine Davies and her ladies, who despite losing in the final encounter, have deservedly taken the Afternoon League title.

The final game at home to Pencoed was somewhat academic as the title was already theirs before a bowl was delivered. Pencoed were unable to catch Penarth and had to be satisfied with second place.

A narrow defeat by 45-50 in this last game was an anti climax to an excellent overall performance in the League and confirms the strength in depth at the club.

Wendy Grant, Betty Jones, Jill Gaskell and Chris Church secured a 20-15 and produced the only Penarth winning rink on the day.

Belinda Price, Kath Jenkins, June Williams and Chris Davies let slip an early lead to lose 12-17. Similarly Sue Croll, Tricia Brinkworth, Joan Lewis and Lynda Jones also went down by 5 shots surrendering their early advantage and losing 13-18.

PG1 opposition in the form of Guest Memorial visited Penarth in what was a must win game to keep the hopes up of grabbing second place and promotion. A tight battle ensued with Guest taking 10 points in a 72-79 win.

The four points earned by Penarth may not be enough to satisfy their promotion needs.

Colin Grant, Phil Crocker, Ken Thorne and Terry '' Bluebirds '' Buckingham controlled their encounter throughout and were worthy 22-16 winners.

Tony Holmes, Paul Gunter, Paul Church and Russel Daniel also led for almost all of the game just hanging on to a 1 shot win by 20-19.

Clive Fry,. Dave Plank, Jack Beanland and Phil Davies fought a titanic battle with the lead changing hands numerous times, but eventually were beaten by 15-20.

Probably the biggest disappointment of the day was served up by Nick Chandler, Bob Horne, Mike Conway and Brian Chandler when after battling superbly to hold a 13-7 lead at end 12, they imploded to lose on 8 of the last 9 ends and surrendered 15-24.

In midweek, the final Munro Cup game took place at Penarth with visitors Murch being beaten by 3 rinks to 1 and a scoreline of 96-48. Unfortunately as previously reported Dinas Powis were too far in front and so second place seems the likely finish.

Squeezed in between all of the serious bowls of last week was the annual jaunt across the Bristol Channel to Victoria Weston. This friendly game is always prefaced with lunch and liquids at The Windmill, Portishead. the 2 hour stop has been blamed for most, if not all, of the defeats suffered in previous visits.

One feels that this trip was no exception as the local cloudy cider took it's toll.

A superb playing surface at Weston did not help all who had sufficiently imbibed on route. The result in defeat by 100 - 137 probably says it all.

However an unlikely hero did emerge on the green as Derek Blainey finally showed his worth played a Ben Stokes type innings to secure the MOM award.

Ear ache was prevalent on the coach trip home as Derek visited all of his colleagues to talk them through his triumphs on the day. Maybe a generous helping of cider should be afforded him before every game.

We will wait and see with trepidation.