Seventeen wins from 17 games made it a perfect season for Barry Athletic Bowls Club’s Munro Cup team. Having secured the trophy with two games to play, the players then set themselves another target, and ended the season with a 100 per cent record.
Penarth Windsor were beaten 12-2, and Athletic wrapped up the campaign with a 14-0 win at Llantwit Major, at the fourth time of asking, as the fixture had previously been called off three times by Llantwit.
A wobble at Llantwit
Briefly, Athletic’s nerves showed in the final match. “After four or five ends all our rinks were down,” said vice-captain Nicola Clarke-Squires, “and I thought ‘what’s going on’, but then everyone just started getting the pace and we had a good result over all the rinks.”
Defeat at Llantwit “would have been the worst thing ever, not the last game of the season. That was the last thing we wanted to happen, we just didn’t want to lose.”
Holding off the holders
Athletic held off the challenge of holders Romilly, who finished the season on 183 points from their 17 matches, two points behind the new champions, who still had two games to play. “Romilly are probably our biggest rivals,” said Nicola. “At the beginning of the season we played them here and won, and that started us off on a good run.”
Winning the last two Vale of Glamorgan trophy games convincingly meant Athletic finished on 211 points, a comfortable 28 points ahead of their rivals.
Good banter on the green
“Our team is very close, with good banter on the green. If you are enjoying it you have fun, and that reflects on the bowls,” said Nicola. “I’ve always thought if you’ve got positive vibes on your rink you play better. Obviously, positions are important, but it’s nice as well if you get on with the people you are playing with.”
A total of 21 players figured in matches, with 16 making most of the appearances and five playing the occasional match when needed. The team’s non-playing captain, Terry Collins, was able to share in the celebrations when the trophy arrived in the clubhouse in late August. Sadly, Terry passed away in September.
Squad: Jude Howell, Scott Howell, Mark Ellis, Gwynfor Parr, Jack Killin, Nigel Leigh, Peter Rogers, Dave Townsend, Nicola Clarke-Squires, Mick Edwards, Rob Morris, Russell Harris, Martin Clarke-Squires, Mark Rhys, Geoff Whittaker, Nina Ray, Kevin Brookes, Phil Killin, Wendy Edwards, Craig Mullins, Dean Collins.
Words: Ken Watkins
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Barry Athletic Bowls Club
Off Paget Road, Barry Island, Barry CF62 5TQ
Barry Athletic is always in the news!
The green’s opening day this season honoured Welsh bowls great Gareth Humphreys. Read the story here.
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