WHIST

Winners, September 9: Top scorer - Gladys Irvine; 1st lady - Kath Sutcliffe; 2nd lady - Gladys Cleaton; 1st gent - Gill Groom; 2nd gent - Elsie Breadnam; 1st half winner - Eric Sutcliffe; 2nd half - Robert Irvine; longest sitter - Vera Burrows.

Raffle winners: Gladys Irvine and Pearl Thomas.

Whist is played every Thursday evening at the Tenby Bowling Club function room, 7.30 pm sharp. New members are always welcome.

TEXACO TROPHY 2002

This very popular weekend of high class bowling every September, generously sponsored by Texaco Ltd, was blessed by mother nature, who produced two most acceptable bright sunny days, ensuring a very happy and sporting occasion.

This round-robin format is a great leveller, possibly favouring the quick starters. Winners of the four sections was in doubt right up to lunch on the Sunday and then had to be resolved with a calculator, exciting stuff.

Section A Saw Ben Owens and Patrick Currie, of the Tenby club, just fail to progress to the quarter-finals by .05 decimal point.

In Section B, equally frustrated were the local duo, Lee Richards and Jonathon Webb, who finished third by the merest fraction.

Three pairs vied for the second spot in Section C, but Neil Rees and Lee Williamson just squeezed through.

Section D turned out to be a two-horse race, the winners also being decided with the calculator, namely Ray Holly and John Baggott.

In the quarter-finals, the section winners played the runners-up in other sections, results being as follows:

R. Holly and J. Baggott 5 R. Burden and A. Evans 12; D. Davies and P. Johns 3 N. Rees and L. Williamson 5; W. D. Rees and M. Watts 7 D. Jones and R. Haddock 3; A. Thomas and J. Glover 7 R. Burden and A. Evans 3.

Semi-finals: N. Rees and L. Williamson 8 W. Rees and M. Watts 5; A. Thomas and J. Glover 8 D. Evans and R. Waters 7.

Final: Neil Rees and Lee Williamson 10 Alan Thomas and John Glover 5.

Although Lee Williamson rarely plays these days due to his workload in Winchester, his natural bowling talent is astounding. Lee with his 2001 partner Vivian John just failed in last year's final. This year Lee, who has a long association with the Tenby club, joined his friend Neil Rees (of Welsh Under 25 days), of the Parc-y-Dre Club, and this powerful combination proved just too good for the quiet but skilful pairing of Alan Thomas and John Glover, both of the Parc-y-Dre Club.

At the trophy presentation ceremony, Tenby's club chairman, Pauline Barnikel, firstly introduced and thanked Mr. Phil Thompson, public relations officer of Texaco Ltd, Pembroke, who generously sponsor this event annually.

Pauline also thanked the tournament organiser (husband) Bert Barnikel for a job well done; the club ladies for feeding everyone in style; Carol Shone (bar manager) for the liquid refreshments; and last, but most importantly, Chris Jenkins for producing the very fine bowling surface, which drew spontaneous applause from the knowledgeable players.

The in-house entertainment on the Saturday evening, 'Reg on the Organ', hit the right spot and the singing, solos and massed choir was superb.

Tenby Bowling Club and our beautiful resort is very popular with most Welsh people, none more so than Roland Hudson. Roland combined his entry in the Texaco Trophy with a visit to the Miguel Gonzales marriage bureau in the Giltar Hotel. On Friday, September 6, Roland tied the knot with his loved one, Elsie, whom he met in Tenby 12 years ago. I must say that the bridal couple looked extremely happy, congratulations.

GRAND SUMMER DRAW

Tenby Bowling Club's summer draw was greatly enhanced this year with the generous sponsorship of Seasons Holidays Plc. The bowling fraternity were able to offer three wonderful prizes in the fund-raising draw given freely by Seasons:

1st prize was a holiday for two in Spain, which was won by Ann Bancroft, of Tenby.

2nd prize, a long weekend or a mid-week break in a luxury hotel in Scotland, was won by regular whist player in the bowling club, Mabel Whittaker (originally from Scotland would you believe).

3rd prize, £50, was won by Sarah Currie.

ROBERT DIMENT TROPHY

This new trophy presented, by Robert's family, to the Pembroke County Bowling Association in commemoration of his life and his association with bowling in Pembrokeshire over approximately 50 years, is reaching its climax.

This weekend sees the last semi-final between the Pembroke Dock club and the Saundersfoot club being played out on the president's green, which is Tenby this year, under the guiding hand of Ben Owens, president.

The winner will join the Tenby club in the final on Saturday, September 21. I know that the Tenby team, already this years PCBA league champions, would dearly love to win this new trophy, so honouring Bob in the best possible way.

FIVE ARCHES LADIES 30

NEYLAND LADIES 37

Leading by five shots at the 18th end against Neyland on Saturday, the Five Arches ladies looked likely to pick up some more points for their tally.

But over the remaining three ends, neither the rink skipped by Vera Williams nor Helen Baggott scored again as Neyland picked up 12 without reply to snatch a seven-shot win and all the points.

Helen's rink had got off to a great start and were 10 shots up at 10 ends, but the game proved to be one of two halves as they only picked up two singles in the second half as Neyland pulled out all the stops to win 21-16.

Vera and her rink were also in front at the halfway stage; they had a ding dong battle in the second half and went into the last end all square, but Neyland just pipped them by two.

The Stena Line sponsored Five Arches play Neyland again tomorrow (Saturday), this time on their own turf starting at 2.30 pm.

Rink scores (Five Arches first, Neyland skips only) were:

P. Stubbs, G. Gray, V. James, H. Baggott 16; V. Hubbard 21.

B. Russell, A. Owens, A. Redman, V. Williams 16; M. Gardner 16.