Antrim Churches League up and running

League Champions Muckamore Pres appeared to pick up where they left off with a hard fought win at Duneane.

Muckamore got off to a great start with Alistair McCords rink claiming 6 shots in the opening end against the rink skipped by Gerard McLarnon.

The rest of the game proved to be an extremely tight affair with both rinks giving very little away and in the end that saw Alistair McCords rink hold on to that advantage for an 11-5 win.

On the other mat Samuel Gray’s rink started off by picking up a 3 and a 1 in the first 2 ends in their game against the rink skipped by Malachy Martin. However Malachy’s rink certainly didn’t let this put them off and they won the next 4 ends seeing them go in front, in what was a very tight and competitive game. In the end though Samuel Gray’s rink did enough in the remaining 3 ends to overturn the score again and to win the match 12-7.

In the second half, rinks skipped by Mervyn McDonald and Gavin Richardson proved to be too strong on the night for their opposing rinks skipped by Grant Robinson and Stuart Pierce. However wins of 11-7 and 11-8 respectively didn’t prove enough to claw back the half time deficit of 11 shots and in the end Muckamore held the overall score by 4 shots with a score of 34-38.

Elsewhere in the opening week, High Street opened their season with a very good 7 point win at St Josephs.

First half wins from the rinks skipped by Tom Lithco and Robert Price saw High Street reach half time with a lead of 18 shots. Although St Josephs did try to turn the tide in the second half it was High Street who went on to extend their advantage after wins by rinks skipped by Davy Wilkinson and Michael Allen.

Michael’s match in particular was a very close affair and his match against the rink skipped by Derek McGinley entered the last end level at 7-7.

However a lot of credit must go to the High Street rink who claimed a full house of 8 shots in the last end to claim the match 15-7!

In the week’s other match, OC would claim a 6 points to 1 victory over Antrim Parish.

Convincing wins of 17-6 and 17-4 from rinks skipped by Sammy Fry and Phillip Scott weren’t enough for OC who only lost one game with Ian Scotts rink winning by 11 shots to 3 to claim a point for Antrim Parish.

RESULTS

OC 49 shots (6 points), Antrim Parish 30 shots (1 point): S Fry 17, M McHugh 6; G Millar 3, I Scott 11; T McFadden 12, N Scott 9; P Scott 17, M Murray 4.

Duneane 34 (2), Muckamore Pres 38 (5): M Martin 7, S Gray 12; G McLarnon 5, A McCord 11; M McDonald 11, G Robinson 7; G Richardson 11, S Pierce 8.

St Josephs 23 (0), High Street 50 (7): B Kerr 5, T Lithco 15; M Ward 4, R Price 12; C Scott 7, D Wilkinson 8; D McGinley 7, M Allen 15

The Dundrod v Drummaul match was postponed.