THE arrival of Victoria Weston Bowling Club to Rectory Road always heralds an afternoon of humour and incessant banter.

The visit on April 22 was no exception although the serious matter of a game of bowls soon concentrated the minds of captain Phil and his intrepid teammates at Murch Bowling Club.

A close encounter of the bowling kind ensued as the game was nip and tuck throughout the 21 ends. The rinks skipped by Bob Hill, Dave Dalby, Clive Fry and Bob Lewis all secured wins with only Nick Chandler and Bob Willmott rinks failing to secure a whitewash.

The last five ends saw the home side rally brilliantly to record a 38 shots haul against 13 by Weston, resulting in a narrow four shot victory (119 -- 115).

On Saturday, the opening PG2 fixture saw Merthyr Guest Memorial arrive at Penarth with captain Mike England anticipating a real battle to secure points from the game. His worries were to be unfounded as his team rose to the challenge and out bowled the visitors in a 87 - 59 win.

Bob Willmott skipped a rink of Lawrence Brooke, Phil Davidge and Paul Church to a resounding victory by 17 shots (27 - 10). This proved to be the backbone of an excellent result which bagged 12 points for a superb start to the PG2 campaign.

Brian Brennan (20 - 13) and Bob Hill (24 - 16) skipped the other winning rinks, with only Dave Plank's rink suffering a reversal.

Hopefully this winning feeling will endure for the WBA Carruthers Shield games to be played through the month of May. The first of these is on Saturday at Murch Bowling Club.