Ballymena Bowling Club weekly round-up

The break had obviously done the Braid men no harm as they returned home with a fine 14 shot victory and 5.5 points to add to their league tally.

Jimmy Shields, Roy Kernohan, William Crawford and John Elliott started well against D Boucher and with 4 ends completed they lead by 8 shots to 0. Over the next 10 ends the home rink halved the deficit and at the 14 end mark the scoreboard read 14-10 in favour of the visitors. Any thoughts of a Belfast victory however were extinguished on the next end when the Ballymena men picked up a maximum count of 8 shots and even though the remainder of the game was more evenly contested it was the Braid rink who claimed a 28-13 victory.

Keith Burnett, John Montgomery, Leslie Jackson and Gary Shaw took on R McKeaveney. The visitors made a very slow start and they were unable to score over the first 6 ends as the home rink took an early 7 shot lead. Two shots on the 7th end got the Braid men up and running and by the time the game had reached the 14th end the home rink lead by 13 shots to 7. A brace of 3’s doubled the Belfast men’s advantage and from then on there was no way back for the visitors who eventually went down 22-9.

There was a very close game between John Houston, Stephen Roberts, Alan O’Loan and Alex Wilson and the Belfast rink skipped by K Graham. With 6 ends played the score board read 6-6. Eight ends later another 14 shots had been scored but again the two rinks could still not be separated with the scores level at 13-13. With19 ends played the scores were still tied at 17-17 and it was no surprise that the game ended in a draw with the final score 18-18.

Andy Hill, Dessie Shaw, Robert McCready and Jim Cameron could only win 1 of the first 5 ends against H Johnston but with the score line 5-4, the Braid men were still very much in touch. The Ballymena rink then won the next 4 ends to turn a 1 shot deficit in to a 7 shot advantage. By the time the match had reached the 15th end the home rink had reduced the arrears to 4 shots but that was as good as it got for the Belfast men as Cameron’s men won the remaining 6 ends win 25-13.

The Ballymena men travel to Saintfield on Tuesday night (tonight) and then on Saturday they entertain Malone.

* Two other teams are also in action on Tuesday night. Ballymena Seniors entertain Ewarts and Ballymena Juniors travel to Downpatrick. On Saturday the Juniors travel to Railway Union (Dublin) in the quarter final of the Irish Junior Cup.

*This year’s Under 25 Inter Association Championships took place at Belmont Bowling Club last weekend. Three Ballymena players, Alistair Coleman, Steven Shields and Michael Wilson were selected for the Northern Ireland Private Greens League who recorded 3 victories to claim the Inter Association title this year.