Dinas Powys hosted newly promoted Barry Athletic, on Saturday, 6th June, and in a closely fought encounter against their local rivals eventually came out victors, by a narrow four shots, to get their 2015 PG1 season off to a good start.
The game itself was, as anticipated, a tight encounter and after seven ends it was the home side who held a six shot, 25-19 lead, with Mike Ackland (9-2) and Clive Todd's (6-2) rinks up on the scoreboard, against Dinas old boys David Wright and Martin Clarke respectively.
During the middle third of the game Dinas continued to hold the upper hand, such that by 14 ends played the lead had moved on to 14 shots, at 57-43
At this stage Ackland's rink had moved their lead on to 12 (16-4), and Clive Todd had moved 10 shot's ahead at (16-6).Meanwhile, Alex Meddins was engaged in a ding dong encounter with Robert Horgan's four, with the score standing at 14-15 to the visitors. The Athletic however were keeping in the match courtesy of Glyn Thomas rink leading 18-11 against home skip Ritchie Janes.
As the match played out, the Athletic fought back. Mike Ackland's rink pushed on and eventually ran out winners by 15 shots (25-10), this advantage however was cancelled out as Ritchie Janes' rink, first off the green, failed to stem the tide and fell to a 13-28 reversal.
Meanwhile Alex Meddins quartet used all their experience and guile to secure a nail biting one shot (25-24) win on the last end, when they picked up two shots, thanks to two 'touchers' in the ditch.
Clive Todd meanwhile was able to see off a late surge from Martin Clarke as his rink rounded off a good opening day with a 20-17 win, sealing a hard fought 83-79 victory and securing 12 points for the villagers.
J.Ackland, T.Hurcom, C.Ackland, M.Ackland (25-10) D.Parker, D.Vowles, A.Hodges, C.Todd (20-17) M.Gershenson, A.Harvey, P.Critcher, A.Meddins (25-24) J.Coles, C.Parsons, G.Griffiths, R.Janes (13-28)
Meanwhile the PG2 team travelled to Pontyclun and returned in buoyant spirits having recorded an excellent 37 shots (96-59) win, collecting the full 14 points as they recorded their fourth straight win of the season.
A very experienced Andre Desrosiers led rink were in good form, storming to a 19 shot (31-12) win. Captain Chris Bates rink, with Peter Clee making a rare bow, won by 11 and Alun Jones brought his men home by 5 shots at 21-16.
Highlight of the afternoon however was the performance of Club Captain Paul Marks' rink who, having fallen 2-14 behind after nine ends, showed great resilience as they slowly but surely fought back before eventually getting their noses in from on the 20th end, before securing what, at one stage, appeared an unlikely two points.
M.Diment, P.Clee, M.Seaford, C.Bates (25-14) J.Follon, R.Diment, D.Ireland, A.Jones (21-16) A.Gittins, B.Harris, M.Edwards, P.Marks (19-17) D.James, N.Giles, C.Scott, A.Desrosiers (31-12)