Dinas Powis entertained Penylan on Saturday 23rd August, with the visitors fresh from their Carruthers Shield success, and the home side in need of victory in their bid to avoid relegation from the top flight.
It was the buoyant visitors who started the quicker and after five ends they had established a solid 18 shot lead, 10-28, the omens not looking good for the home side at this stage. Dinas had to show character and to their credit they did just that, such that by the time 14 ends had been completed they had levelled up the scores at 58 each.
Captain Ritchie Janes' rink, nine down after five ends recovered to 18-18, Clive Todd's quartet, 0-7 down early on, pulled back to within one shot at 15-16 and rink Ackland turned a three shot deficit into a five shot lead.
At this stage it was all to play for and with some excellent bowls being played by all four rinks the game was very much in the balance.
First rink off was Chris Blake's who scored six shots over the last three ends to edge home 19-18. Captain Janes' rink fought well until the death, before going down by four 22-26.
Led admirably by Clive Todd his quartet grew in confidence, producing a strong finish to defeat Mark Harding's rink 26-21 and this left Mike Ackland to see the game out, winning by three, 20-17 to secure an excellent, and well merited 87-82 shot victory and 12 precious points in the fight to stay up.
D.Parker, T.Hurcom, C.Parsons, C.Todd (26-21) J.Ackland, P.Critcher, C.Ackland, M.Ackland (20-17) J.Coles, M.Edwards, A.Harvey, C.Blake (19-18) D.Vowles, C.Scott, P.Marks, R.Janes (22-26)
Meanwhile a somewhat inexperienced 'A' team travelled to Champions elect Penylan for their penultimate PG2 Division 1 fixture and were soundly beaten all round. Little cheer to be had in a 54-103, 49 shot defeat, and the team need to pick themselves up and dust themselves down for their last game, this coming Saturday, against Aberdare Harlequins.
R.Diment, G.Duggan, A.Locker, A.Jones (15-22) D.James, P.Hufton, M.Diment, N.Giles (11-23) G.Leach, B.Clark, M.Seaford, C.Bates (14-31) T.Gittings, J.Follon, J.Porter, G.White (14-27)