Wilsons beat 119 duos to win the Dunbarton pairs

Dunbarton Bowling Club Pairs Tournament finalists Jonny & DJ Wilson (All Saints Tullylish) and Richard McMullan & Mark Sproule (Cranagill).

All Saints pair DJ and Jonny Wilson were the perhaps unsurprising winners of Dunbarton's first short mat pairs tournament in years earlier this month.

Bowlers from across the country descended on Gilford for the evening, such as experienced short mat names in Andy Leckey, Marty Trainor and the Stubbs brothers were joined by recent outdoor Atlantic Rim Pairs Gold Medallist Ian McClure.

But it was the Dunbarton duo who came out on top.

At a packed hall, the pair of Gordon & Raymond Stubbs (Ballinderry) along with Nathan Haire (Hillsborough) and Terry Crawford (St. Anthony’s) progressed through their preliminary games with victories over Jennifer and Megan Wilson (Michelin) and Martin Jameson & Alan Irwin (Loughanreagh).

The Wilson bros set down the marker with a 9-3 quarter-final victory over St Mark’s duo Lisa Douglas and Jal Richardson with an end to spare but the other three were close.

In a fascinating game, Haire/Crawford defeated the Stubbs brothers 7-6, with Crawford producing a superb last bowl to guarantee victory with game against.

Experienced short mat bowler Rodney McCutcheon and partner Jackie Erskine came back from 7-1 down against Donaghmore pair Ennis Hamilton and Paul Hagan to force a tie end to take a single shot victory.

In similar circumstances, Richard McMullan and Mark Sproule of Cranagill secured victory over Cookstown High father and son combination of Hugh and Alan Paul. The Mid-Ulster pair found themselves 7-0 ahead and on the verge of an early victory, only for the Portadown duo to roar back and win 10-9.