Pictured above with county president John Baggott (seated centre) and team manager Colin Wynn (far right) are members of the Pembrokeshire County bowling team who were involved in a thriller against Monmouthshire on Sunday.

Played at Tenby, home club of the county president, the much-fancied visitors started as firm favourites after thrashing Ceredigion by 67 shots (159-92) on their own turf in the previous round of matches.

But the Pembrokeshire side were in determined mood and, after an inspirational team talk, set about showing their opponents that they were going to be no pushovers. In fact, far from it, as buoyed by the vociferous support from the large crowd on the bank, they themselves held a 20-plus shots lead with threequarters of the game gone.

It was then, though, that the Monmouthshire outfit, littered with current and past internationals, began to show their class as they fought back to set up a nailbiting climax.

With just one rink left playing, Pembrokeshire still held a two-shot lead overall, but the visitors were lying two solid shots on the green, with only the skips left to bowl.

Whitland's Glyndwr Thomas had a last-gasp chance to be hero, but his final wood narrowly failed to turn a visiting bowl out to leave the match a tie at 109-109.

Perhaps a fair result on the day and no doubt one which Pembrokeshire would have accepted before the start, but it was a little disappointing after holding such a useful lead. Nevetheless, their performance was a confidence booster for the rest of the campaign, which continues on July 17 with a rearranged game away to Montgomery, the original scheduled game at Llanidloes having been called off due to a waterlogged green.

• Perhaps not surprisingly, with county matches on their own green this year, several Tenby players featured in last weekend's game, as highlighted by the other accompanying photographs seen here,