The majority of teams in Division 1 got a rest last week and there was just the one match; between Morriston B and Emperors, both of whom had been newly promoted. As both teams are languishing at the bottom of the table the stakes were relatively high as the results of their encounters could well decide which team gets relegated at the end of the season. Emperors travelled to Morriston with an almost full strength team but as they might have expected came up against a Morriston team that was also pretty close to full strength. The win for the home team by 3½-1½ was down to wins on boards 1, 2 & 5 with board 3 taken by the Emperors and board 4 shared. Morriston B now have a bit of clear air between themselves and the Emperors.

A bit more action in Division 2 but only just. Top of the table De la Beche A hosted the visit of the struggling Brunel team, last season’s Division 3 winners. If they didn’t know it already Brunel are discovering that there are no easy matches in this division and this encounter was no exception. Admittedly De la Beche A, now that they have a couple of University players in the fold, are clearly the strongest team in this division and they demonstrated this with a 4-1 drubbing of Brunel. Excellent draws against the odds on boards 3 & 5 saved Brunel from the whitewash.

The other match was between Morriston D and third placed Upper Killay Merlins. With Morriston fielding three up and coming juniors Merlins needed to rely on their experience to get them the result. A rematch between Joel Chung and Steve Edwards saw Joel reverse his previous defeat when he lost to Steve in the Harriers v Morriston G match earlier in the week (see below) . There was also an excellent draw from Ella Toner up against Bill Flew. These results were not enough, however, to save the Morriston team who ended up on the wrong side of the 3½-1½ score line. The result moved Merlins into second place behind De La Beche A.

Division 3 was the busiest of all with three matches. Top of the table De la Beche C visited Tonna rugby club to take on their nearest rivals Castell-Nedd Tribunes. As the final score suggests it was a hard fought match with De la Beche C just getting the better of the 3-2 score. Although the Tribunes were out-graded on every board wins from Andrew Powell and newcomer Joshua Morgan kept the score line more than respectable.

Bottom of the table Morriston G travelled to Upper Killay where they faced fourth placed Harriers. It was predominately a match of age versus youth with the experienced Harriers team expected to win. It was not to be, however, and although on paper they were the stronger team the Harriers suffered their third defeat in a row albeit by the closest of possible scores; 3-2 in favour of Morriston G. For Morriston G it was a welcome win after four consecutive defeats and in addition it moved them off the bottom of the table.

The final match of the week was between Morriston F and De la Beche B with Morriston fielding a team that, yet again, was composed predominately of juniors. On this occasion the experience of the De la Beche B team held them in good stead and they went home the victors 3½-1½. With an unbeaten season so far (four wins from four matches) the result puts them on an equal footing with their C team compatriots at the top of the table but with 2 matches in hand.

19/11/2018