Victory double keeps Juniors in contention to retain league title

During the week, they passed the century of shots with a thumping 109-55 win over Belmont and then followed that up on Saturday with another high-scoring win, 99-50 against Ulster Transport.

In the midweek game, Leslie Barr, Neal Garrett, Michael Wilson and Roy Torrington were on fire against D McCullough as they recorded one of the highest scores ever achieved by a Ballymena rink in recent times with the final score 49 shots to 4.

After a closely-fought first half, John McFall, Tommy Hill, Danny McCullough and George Graham took of their game against A Ross, and a count of ‘6’ on the final end added the gloss to a 30-16 scoreline.

Stephen Coleman, Geoff Padget, Jimmy Larkin and David Torrington started brightly against W Busby but after building up an early lead, they suffered a run of eight ends where they failed to score and by the end, they were 22-14 adrift.

Alan McAuley, Arnold Kenny, Ivan Lynn and John Coulter had a low-scoring encounter against the Belmont rink skipped by D Dubois.

It was all square as the game entered the closing stages but the Braidmen had the better finish when they scored 2 singles over the next 2 ends and a further 2 shots on the final end gave the Ballymena men victory by 16 shots to 13.

Ballymena Juniors 99, Ulster Transport 50: Stephen Coleman, Geoff Padget, Jimmy Larkin and David Torrington found themselves all square against D Ervine after 10 ends with scores level at 8-8.

Seven ends later the Braid men held a slender 1 shot advantage but the visitors scored 2 counts of 3 shots over the next 2 ends and this was enough to ensure victory with the final score 22-15.

Things did not look good for Andy Hill, Arnold Kenny, Ivan Lynn and John Coulter who found themselves 7 shots down after only 4 ends against R McCartney.

The Braid men steadied the ship over the next few ends and a count of 4 shots on the 10th end gave the visitors the lead for the first time.

The remainder of the game was very much a one sided affair as the home rink could only score 2 more singles while the Ballymena men added another 20 shots on to their score to record a fine 32-11 victory.

Allen Stewart, Tommy Hill, Danny McCullough and George Graham were quickly in to the groove against B Norton and with 7 ends played the Ballymena men lead by 14 shots to nil.

The remainder of the game was a much better contest, however the Braid rink were able to hold on to their 14 shot advantage right up until the end of the contest with the score board reading 25-11.

Leslie Barr, John McFall, Neal Garrett and Roy Torrington started well against J Hanvey and after 5 ends they had opened up a 6 shots advantage. Six shots was still the difference between the two rinks after 10 ends and again at 19 ends.

Two shots to the Ballymena men on the penultimate end and a single to the home rink on the last end gave the visitors victory by 20 shots to 13.