Leaders’ dip in form goes on with defeat at Llandrindod

3:13pm Thursday 17th July 2008

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TARMAC League leaders St Martin’s sudden lapse of form continued as they lost their third match in a row.

On their first visit to Llandrindod in the league, the home club saw off the St Martin’s challenge with a late burst of winning ends to take the match by 27 shots.

Two rinks were held by Llandrindod by 16-15 with only three ends to play, but then a fine finish by both the fours saw them pick up 15 shots without reply.

This put the match out of reach of St Martin’s as the day’s best rink win also went to Llandrindod with a 29-10 success. Jim Knowles’ St Martin’s four were never headed in their game as they won 26-17 to give a little solace to the leaders with the points for their only rink win.

Leominster leapfrog to second place above Kington with two wins out of two matches to extend their winning run.

After losing their opening match of the season, Leominster have now won eight matches with some ease and lie just four points behind St Martin’s with two games in hand on the leaders.

At Weobley, the Leominster rink skipped by England International Tracey Powell won by 16 shots to lead the way to a 25-shot win for the visitors.

Mansell Havard held John Harris’ Leominster rink to a draw and Barbara Warburton’s rink finally went down by just the one shot to Fred Williams’ rink for Leominster as the home club tried to contain the Leominster momentum.

However, the win was sealed by Ron Perry’s Leominster four that won by seven shots as the visitors went home with 15 points to overtake Kington.

Later in the week, Hereford took on the task of trying to end Leominster’s two-year unbeaten home record in the league and just failed when they narrowly lost by three shots.

In a match that saw the clubs exchange the lead several times as the contest progressed, the final result saw rinks honours shared with two winnings rinks for each club. Brian Cade’s rink scored a four-shot win for Leominster but this was matched exactly by Olly Cox’s Hereford four that also won by the same margin.

The match was decided by the Leominster four skipped by Ron Perry with a 21-17 shot win that held off the 17-13 shot win by John Weir’s Hereford four.

Elsewhere, Castle Green enjoyed a welcome boost in their fortunes with two wins out of two to lift them clear of the bottom reaches of the league.

Their visit to Hay produced a single shot win to extend the Welsh club’s unlucky home record.

With only one win to date (against the league leaders), two other matches were lost by one shot, one was drawn and the fifth lost by only four shots.

The Castle Green four skipped by Alec Carter scored the day’s best win with a 21-11 shot result, but they were pushed hard by the Hay rinks skipped by husband and wife Iola and John Hughes. Both won with a 23-shot score, but Jan Reading’s Castle Green four just tipped the balance to the visitors with a four-shot win that settled the match by one shot.

The city-based club then entertained Wellington in a midweek fixture and went on to win by 48 shots as the villagers went home having lost all on four rinks.

Colin Reading skipped the Castle Green four that came off with the best result, a 28-8 win, as Wellington struggled to master a green that played markedly different to their own artificial surface at Wellington.

RESULTS: Hay on Wye 71 Castle Green 72 (Home Rinks W2 D0 L2), Weobley 56 Leominster 81 (W0 D1 L3), Castle Green 99 Wellington 51 (W4 D0 L0), Leominster 73 Hereford 70 (W2 D0 L2), Llandrindod Wells 93 St Martins 66 (W3 D0 L1).