Monmouth Bowls club opened up its defence of their Coal Merchants League crown on Monday, 11th May.

Having won the league last year the club was keen to get off to a winning start against visitors Cinderford. Last year Cinderford lost by 6 shots at Monmouth so the Monmouth members new it would be a hard fought game.

The game remained close to the very end with Monmouth winning 4 out of the 5 rinks but only winning by 6 shots, the same margin as last year.