Away tie for Shield team

A strong start saw Aaron O’Rorke battle his way to an excellent 2 and 1 victory. Aaron stormed into a four hole lead through 12 holes before his opponent fought back to reduce the arrears to just a single hole playing the sixteenth.

When his opponent missed the green and failed to recover, Aaron won the hole to ensure his unbeaten run remained intact, before closing out the match on seventeen.

Noel Magill secured a second point for the away side with a stunning birdie, birdie finish, to his match.

It was nip and tuck all the way before Noel found himself one down on the fifteenth. But when his opponent got into trouble and failed to salvage par, Noel holed a tricky four footer to level the match.

He followed this up at the next, when he bombed in a thirty footer for birdie, to seize the initiative; then, repeated the feat, from fifteen feet, at seventeen, to round out the match.

Shane McCotter almost made it three wins for the Dunmurry men, but in the end had to settle for a vital half.

Shane found himself one up, with two to play, and found the heart of the green at seventeen, applying pressure to his opponent.

When he found the bunker, it looked like a third 2 and 1 victory was on the cards, but a superb bunker shot to six feet, followed by an equally superb putt, ensured the match would go down the last.

Both men found the last green in regulation, but Shane’s approach took an unfortunate hop up onto the top tier, leaving him an impossible putt. When he missed the return, his opponent, calmly rolled in his three footer, for a halved match.

The final two matches both went the way of the home side, with Ward Farrell and Gareth Shirlow, both losing their matches on the sixteenth.

The draw sets up an intriguing return leg this Sunday at Dunmurry, with a quarter final place at stake.