Bowls: Less than convincing win for Merthyr

Feb 21 2008 Merthyr Express

Merthyr Tydfil 130 Earlswood 113

MERTHYR Tydfil’s Championship side took another step towards promotion to the Premier League, albeit in unconvincing style.

Merthyr started the day as hot favourites in the first promotion play-off to beat the West Division winners from Jersey Marine, who were missing several key players, and they got the show on the road early with John Downey’s rink piling the pressure on Roy Cutting’s four on their way to a 13-0 lead.

Welsh skip Stephen Batten, with veteran Cliff Taylor at second and teenagers Liam Stone and Nathan Scoot, also led the way by taking a 10-1 lead over the irrepressible Lennie Davies’ rink.

The other four rinks were relatively tight but this enabled Merthyr to maintain a 20-30 shot lead for most of the game.

Then, inexplicably, the wheels started to fall off Merthyr’s wagon.

The normally reliable John K Evans rink, having led 15-8, lost five ends on the trot to go 24-15 behind, while Carl Lewis’ four, who had been within one or two, conceded two counts of four and one of five to go behind 23-11.

Earlswood started to get their belief, having reduced arrears from 32 to 11, but a couple of ends turned the tide back in the Martyrs’ favour.

Robert Price, playing the recently capped Emlyn Williams, had kept a steady head all game and picked up a crucial count of five on the 18th end to stretch his lead to seven.

Elsewhere, Craig Humphreys, playing third to Lee Morgan, crucially drove and turned a head from four down to three up to all but extinguish the Earlswood fire.

Batten finished top rink, winning by 15, having played some remarkable drives to save counts against him, and Downey also won convincingly in the end by 14.

Price finished off six up while Morgan won by five. Evans lost by 10 and Lewis by 13.

Merthyr will achieve promotion to the Premier League this Saturday (February 23) as long as they beat Radnor (Llandrindod Wells) at Earlswood.

Match scores: Ray Evans, Julian Evans, Peter Toomey, John K Evans 16, Nicky Miller 26; David Davies, Clarry Wheeler, Craig Humphreys, Lee Morgan 26, Gareth Herbert 21; Mark Jones, Adam Ahrens, Richie Ahrens, John Downey 28, Roy Cutting 14; Liam Stone, Cliff Taylor, Nathan Scoot, Steve Batten 26 Lennie Davies 11; Roger Harvey, David K Jones, Andy O’Sullivan, Robert Price 20, Emlyn Williams 14; Mike Powell, Steve Toms, Jonathan Evans, Carl Lewis 14, Colin Williams 27.

l In the Welsh Pairs, Robert Price achieved a double over Earlswood’s Emlyn Williams when he and David K Jones comfortably beat the Swansea man in the first round at the Rhondda, 20-7.

Joining Price and Jones in the second round are Merthyr brothers John and Julian Evans, who comfortably beat an Ogwr pair at the same venue.