THE last two weekends have been busy for Abergavenny Bowls Club because of club and association competition finals, reports JOHN WHOMERSLEY.
The first of these was the club’s competition finals on Saturday, September 14.
The day began with the men’s handicap final and was completed by the crowning of the men’s and ladies champions.
Mary Evans and Sue Pritchard played the ladies final first, and the former established an early five-shot lead.
This was overturned in the middle third of the game as Sue scored 12 shots without reply, and then confirmed her victory scoring seven shots over the final five ends to win by 21 shots to 12.
The men’s final was an excellent game of bowls played between John Beaton and Matthew Vale.
It was “nip and tuck”, with the scores level at 12-all after the first 14 ends before Matthew managed to seize the advantage by playing longer jacks, to claim the championship by the same score as the ladies final, 21-12.
Other winners were Peter Steed in the Men’s Handicap and Peter Beynon in the Male Novices.
The Male Veteran’s title was won by John McGregor while Dick Richards and Mike Collins won the Men’s Pairs.
The Ladies Novices was won by Jenni McGregor, with Kay Doughty successful in the Ladies 7 Up competition.
And Kath Indge and Ann Whomersley took the Ladies Pairs trophy, with John Vale and Jenni McGregor winning the Mixed Pairs.
Following the finals the trophies were awarded to the winners, alongside a presentation to Club Member of the Year, which was well deserved by Ian McCuish.
The following day several Abergavenny Bowls Club members were involved in the finals of the East Monmouthshire Bowling Association competition finals at Caldicot.
Jimmy Harris and Nigel Jewell were the first on the green, contesting the Over 60s Pairs against two members of the host club.
Although evenly matched, the Caldicot pair of Barnett and Jones managed to secure victory 20-18.
Two Abergavenny members, Peter Steed and David Hill then fought out the final of the Over 60s singles with the former eventually gaining the upper hand to win 21-14.
The most closely contested final of the day was for the Mixed Pairs title played between the home club pair of Angie Clements and Martin Seal and Ann and John Whomersley of Abergavenny.
This game finished all square at 21-all after the 18 ends.
This necessitated an extra end to decide the title winners, and the Abergavenny pair were one shot down with one bowl remaining.
But in a very tense situation, they managed to convert this deficit by drawing the winning shot to win the title 22-21.
During the past week Abergavenny also played a friendly fixture, made up of five rinks, against Panteg Park.
They managed to secure victory on two of the five rinks but suffered an overall defeat by 78 shots to 62.
The two successful Abergavenny rinks were those of Ian McCuish and John McGregor, while the rinks of Mike Collins, Peter Steed and John Woodier missed out.