Eighteen teams of Short Mat Bowlers took part in the Autumn Triples Tournament organised by The Monmouthshire Short Mat Bowls Association held on 26th October at Chepstow Leisure Centre.
It was very encouraging to see four teams entered from Caldicot as they have only joined the association this season.
In the first round, where teams are vying for a place in the quarter finals, very close scores were recorded.
In one match the number of ends won was needed to decide the team going through to the quarter finals, however the successful teams going through were Caldicot (3), Usk (1), Magor (1), Caldicot (4), Mathern (2), Usk (2), Mathern (1), and Goytre (1).
The closest match in the quarter finals was between Magor (1) and Caldicot (4) with a score eight shots to six in favour of Magor (1).
The four teams in the semi-finals were Magor (1), Mathern (1), Usk (1) and Mathern (2).
In the match between Magor (1) and Mathern (1), Mathern proved too strong for Magor with a win of 17 shots to seven.
In the other semi-final Mathern (2) beat Usk (1) so the finalists were the two Mathern teams.
In the final the Mathern team of Steve Jones, Pearl Gill and Miriam started well with a five-shot lead in the first end and they managed to keep the pressure up on their rival team from Mathern of Wally Gill, Chris Rudderham and Lynn Williams until the end of the match, winning by a margin of 14 shots to six, so becoming the Monmouthshire Autumn Triples Champions.
Bill Bacon, a former WSMBA national secretary, presented the trophies and thanked all the competitors for taking part and special thanks to Pearl Gill for running the raffle and to Steve Jones for doing all the paperwork.
The Spring Triples competition will take place in March/ April 2014.