MONMOUTH Bowls Club got their competitive season under way on Saturday, with a visit to Cross Keys in the Gwent Bowls League (GBL).

Generally, the visiting players took a while to get used to the green and found themselves behind on all three rinks.

The first Monmouth rink of Denis Prince, Jon Miller, Tommy Needs and skip Haydn Holder quickly recovered from losing the first end however, and built a substantial lead, winning 12 of the next 13 ends.

The third rink, under skip Jeff Parker, also recovered to draw level at 6-6 before slipping behind again.

Meanwhile, Sean Croudace and his rink found themselves 2-10 down before staging their comeback.

By the time they levelled at 16-16, the spots of precipitation had turned to steady, persistent rain and the green became heavy with standing water.

At this point, Monmouth were leading by 12 shots, largely thanks to the first rink holding a substantial 27-3 lead.

The last four ends, however, were a struggle and all three rinks lost shots, giving Cross Keys the overall win by just three shots.

On Sunday, Sean Croudace and Haydn Holder travelled to Abergavenny Bowls Club for the delayed 2025 finals of the East Monmouthshire Bowls Association (EMBA) competitions, postponed from September.

In the Over-60s Pairs final they faced the Abergavenny pairing of Mike Collins and Rob Poynter, who had the advantage of playing in other finals in the morning and made a quick start, racing to a 9-0 lead after only three ends.

The Monmouth duo then made steady progress in reducing the deficit but finally ran out of ends with the final score at 18-15 to their opponents.

Monmouth now face another away fixture in the GBL with a visit to RTB Ebbw Vale this Saturday (May 9).