WEOBLEY opened their account in this year’s Tarmac League with two successive wins including a massive all rinks win against the champion club, Kington.

The new green at Weobley has so far given the home club the advantage as their other win, also at home, accounted for league newcomers, Llandrindod Wells.

Weobley welcomed Llandrindod to their first match in the league but took the match three rinks to one with the Weobley rink skipped by Barbara Warburton picking up rink honours with a 28-9 shot win. Ken Price’s rink for Llandrindod saved the whitewash with a well-earned eight-shot win.

Kington were next in Weobley’s sights and the champion club could not find the answers to Weobley’s play as all four home rinks won to give the home club a maximum 16-points win. But Kington were not outplayed on any rink as all the Weobley rinks were held to single-figure winning margins, with Terry Owen’s Kington rink getting the closest to a win before going down by three shots to Barbara Warburton’s rink.

Llandrindod Wells hosted Hay-on-Wye in the first Tarmac League match played at Llandrindod and picked up a three-rink win in this all-Wales match. R Price skipped his rink to a 13-shot win for Llandrindod to record the best win on the day.

The Hay rink skipped by Elizabeth Bounds scored the only winning rink for the visitors with a single-shot win to limit the home club to three winning rinks.

Earlier, Kington had opened their defence of the league championship at Hereford and came away with a nine-shot win and 14 league points when they beat the home club on three rinks. Their best rink win on the day came from a 25-15 shot win for R Bithell’s rink. But Hereford took some pleasure in restricting Kington’s winning margin to single figures as M Ricketts rink ran away with their game with a 25-9 shot win.

Champions Kington were relieved to win their home match against Hay and take match points even though they lost on three rinks.

D Bithell’s rink for Kington scored a runaway 29-10 shot win on their rink that proved to be the decisive score.

Their win was just enough to counter a determined effort by the visitors that saw Hay secure wins on the three other rinks.

Captain Iola Hughes rink led the Hay effort, winning by 11 shots on their rink but Kington managed to hang on to hold Hay in check on the other rinks played to take the match by a single shot.

Earlier Kington had got this year’s campaign back on track after their four-rink defeat at Weobley with a convincing home win against Leominster.

The visitors fell victim to a 28-shot win for the home club with only John Harris’s Leominster rink preventing a clean sweep for Kington, winning by one shot to give Leominster two rink points to take home.

Weobley’s successful opening run of matches was bought to an end when they came unstuck at Wellington.

The home rinks skipped by Geoff Jones, with a 22-shot win, and by Ken Hancock, posting a 20-shot victory, saw them home in a convincing 45-shot win.

Wellington secured the fourth winning rink and maximum points when Barry Briffett’s rink came off the green with a 21-20 shot win, having pulled back from being 14-1 down after six ends.

But Wellington could not keep up the momentum five days later when they welcomed Kingsland to their all weather surface, going down by 16 shots.

Malcolm Morgan’s rink for Kingsland made the winning contribution with a 16-shot win as Kingsland were held to a draw on a second rink and had to concede another rink win to the host club when Ken Hancocks skipped his Wellington rink to a four-shot win.

St Martin’s and Castle Green played their opening league fixture at the Castle Green where the visitors came away with a 25-shot win. Only Jean Jones’ rink for Castle Green prevented maximum points going to St Martin’s as her rink recorded a three-shot win. Vince Ledbury’s St Martin’s rink picked up rink honours on the day with a 12-shot win to lead the visitors to their win and start their campaign to improve on last year’s fourth position in the League.

RESULTS Weobley 93 Llandrindod 63 (Home Rinks W3 D0 L1), Hereford 70 Kington 79 (W1 D0 L3), Weobley 82 Kington 62 (W4 D0 L0), Llandrindod 78 Hay on Wye 59 (W3 D0 L1), Wellington 108 Weobley 63 (Home Rinks W4 D0 L1), Kington 85 Leominster 57 (W3 D0 L1), Kington 74 Hay on Wye 73 (W1 D0 L3), Wellington 63 Kingsland 79 (W1 D1 L2), Castle Green 64 St Martins 89 (W1 D0 L3).