Dinas 1st team were again on their travels on Saturday 11th July, with a visit to Ely Valley, looking to build on an encouraging start to the season whilst anticipating another tough fixture, which it turned out to be.
On a very poor surface Dinas, showing three changes from the previous game due to unavailability, got off to a good start and after seven ends played they held a narrow six shot lead at 29-23, with all four rinks being closely fought.
After a further seven ends whilst Dinas had maintained their six shot lead at 55-49 the rinks were shared. For Dinas, Chris Blake and Alex Meddins rinks were both 18-9 ahead, whilst Mike Ackland and Clive Todd trailed by 8-14 and 11-17 respectively.
As the game drew to a close Ely Valley sniffed out a fightback but Dinas held their nerve. Alex Meddins increased his advantage to come home by 11, 25-14 and whilst Chris Blake dropped a couple of late shots they also held on to win by five, 22-17.
Clive Todd picked up an invaluable four on the 16th end and battled on before eventually losing by five, leaving the green for Mike Ackland's quartet with Dinas overall seven shots in front. With two earlier 'dead ends' they nervelessly played out the final two ends against John Applegate dropping only one on each end to close out the game with Dinas picking up a very well earned 10 points with a 78-73 victory.
G.White, D.Ireland, A.Harvey, A.Meddins (25-14) J.Coles, D.Vowles, M.Edwards, C.Todd (18-23) H.Meddins, D.Parker, M.Gershenson, C.Blake (22-17) J.Ackland, T.Hurcom, G.Griffiths, M.Ackland (13-19)
With a number of players unavailable it was a much changed 'A' team who took on Ystradfechan in a battle of two unbeaten PG2 sides, and it was Dinas who came out on top to maintain their fantastic start to the season, recording their sixth league win of the season by 79 shots to 64.
The win was based on a super 29-9, 20 shot victory for Club Captain Paul Marks' rink with some 70 years separating the youthful enthusiasm of lead Ben Harris and evergreen 80+ Ron Diment playing 2nd. Alun Jones' four played well to add a further 10 shot win and whilst the remaining two rinks fell to defeat the margin of victory was sufficient to see Dinas collect a 10 points in their quest for an instant return to the PG2 1st Division and round off an excellent weekend.
M.Diment, T.Mahoney, A.Desrosiers, A.Jones (24-14) J.Follon, D.Cameron, M.Seaford, N.Giles (15-18) B.Harris, R.Diment, A.Locker, P.Marks (29-9) T.Gittins, D.Curtin, C.Bates, P.Critcher (11-23)