TAFF ELY INDOOR BOWLS

CARRYING out their first National Championship East league match for 2017, the Taff Ely bowlers on Saturday travelled to the Sully Stadium seeking to gain a high amount of points from the maximum allocation of 22 to maintain their second position in the league.

The Sully venue has not over past seasons been a venue from where the Taff bowlers have come away with little reward for their efforts, Saturday’s visit proved to be another encounter where again the Taff bowlers just secured four points from two successful rinks. In contrast to the home and away venues the Sully club bowlers visited the Goods Yard Stadium back in October where the Taff Ely bowlers beat their visitors by an overall score of 36 shots with 21 points to their credit, whereas Saturday’s encounter the Sully bowlers had 32 shots to their credit and 18 points to bank. Bryn Roberts, Charlie Foulkes, Tom Cannon and Reg Rand provided a credibile performance that saw their hosts trail throughout the battle, collecting two counts of 4 shots and four triples in their scoreline to secure their rink points. Mark Thomas, skipping his team along with captain Adrian Dash at third position and supported in the front positions – at lead Simon Coughlin and the second position spot by Graham Cross.

Gaining a first end bonus of collecting a fistful of shots Thomas and co did not allow their opposition to take the lead at any stage except to level the score at 6 apiece in the third (7 ends) stage of the game. Thomas and co against their opponents displaying a fine game of bowls securing 11 ends to their hosts 10 ends with the two rink points achieved, with a plus of ironically, the amount of the 5 shots gained on the first end.

Ken Cullen, Luke Hobbs, Howard Pullin and Lee Bridge trailed their encounter throughout, whilst only two shots separated them from the hosts at 12 ends a gallant effort was staged only to find that the Sully team finishing the stronger to gain the rink points. Providing another gallant display were Charlie Gittens, Rob Richards, Rob Williams and Ian Randell who kicked off with a single and had to wait until the 7th end to double the amount.

With a deficit of 8 shots against at 9 ends, Randell and co managed to reduce to 5 shots by the 18th end, only eventually ending the afternoon 7 shots adrift. An uncomfortable afternoon was in store for the likes of the two remaining teams on the Sully stadium carpet for Derek Williams, Jack Griffiths, Mark Saunders and Brian Stock who suffered a second half of the game by scoring on just one end.

Stock and co during the first period of the afternoon sustaining an evenly balance performance leading 10-7 at the 11th end. The host team on the 12th end gained a count of 5 shots which dented the Taff team and that their opponents boosted by their bonus 5 shots, only allowed the Taff bowlers to add a double to their score.

The highest deficit of the afternoon’s play by 21 shots were recorded against Colin Jones, Gareth Davies, Dave Randell and Alan Malkin who made every effort to battle against the consistent pressure from their opponents, only to find that in the final third of the game, the hosts further uplifted their performance which included two counts of 4 shots and two triples.

With just two fixtures remaining in the Championship League, the Taff Bowlers now rely on hearing the results from their league rivals and to secure as many points from their visit to the Bridgend Stadium, and the home tie against league leaders Port Talbot in the coming weeks to reach their target of finishing in the second position.

TAFF ELY 105 (4 POINTS) SULLY ...137 (18 POINTS)

Rink scores: R Rand 31-20, M Thomas 19-14, L Bridge 19-25, I Randell 13-20, B Stock 1226, A Malkin 11-32. A REPRESENTATIVE team from the Taff Ely club in midweek joined the Welsh Indoor Bowling Association Presidents elect of teams from six clubs to field a side to play the Cardiff club at the Sophia Gardens Stadium.

The whole match provided a keen and enthusiastic battle where the afternoon game was followed by all bowlers being rewarded with a buffet and the traditional speeches and presentations from the hosts management and response from the Welsh president.

In the after match speeches the Taff Ely team were acknowledged for their contribution to the encounter in which the Presidents beat the hosts by two shots and that the four bowlers from the Taff Ely club were presented with plaques to commemorate the top amount of plus shots from the afternoon’s match performance.

Receiving their awards were Colin Jones, Gerry Edwards, Robert Richards and Alan Malkin. Result