Ballymena Vets teamsenjoy good victories

Ballymena Vets had a good day last Monday when they entertained Curran. Both teams had one rink in the ascendency however it was the Braid men who claimed the overall victory by a margin of 6 shots.

Keith Burnett, Derek Greer, Norman Armstrong and Arnold Kenny were drawn against J McIlwrath on rink 1 and it was the visitors who made the better start and with 4 ends completed they lead by 5 shots to 1. Three ends later however the Ballymena men had drawn level with the scores tied at 7-7 and from then on it was mostly one way traffic as the Braid rink took control. Kenny’s men won the next 8 ends and during that period of the game the Ballymena men accumulated a total of 19 shots without reply. The visitors stopped the rot on the penultimate end when they picked up a count of 3 shots but the Braid rink finished off the day with 2 shots on the final end to claim an excellent 28-10 victory.

Willie McNabb, Alan O’Loan, Alex Wilson and Joe McKeown did not have the best of days against S McKibben on rink 2. The Braid rink was unable to score until the 6th end and by that time they were 7 shots in arrears. McKeown’s men finally got going on the 6th end when they picked up a single and for the next few ends they were reasonably competitive. By the time 13 ends had been played the visitors held an 8 shot advantage but any thoughts of victory which the Ballymena men may have had were quickly extinguished over the next 3 ends as the visitors scored another 7 shots to increase their lead to 15 shots. Both rinks won one of the remaining ends but it was the Curran rink who came out on top by 22 shots to 8.

Ballymena Vets2 (31) Glengormley (28)

Ballymena Vets2 travelled to Glengormley last week. This was a very close game and the result could have gone either way but it was the Ballymena men who claimed the victory by a margin of 3 shots.

Bertie Thompson, Robert McCready, Liam Lyness and Wilfie Stewart started off in confident mood on rink 1 when they won the first 3 ends against D Burton to take an early 3-0 lead. Three shots was still the margin after 5 ends but the complexion of the game changed on the next end when the home rink picked up a count of 5 shots to lead by 2. Over the remaining ends the Glengormley rink dominated proceedings. They won 8 of the remaining 12 ends and during this time they outscored the Braid men by 13 shots 7 to win the game by 19 shots to 11.

John Montgomery, Dessie Shaw, Robert Mark and John Elliott were in good form against B Stead on rink 2. The visitors won 6 of the first 7 ends to open up a 10 shot advantage but the home rink steadied the ship when they picked up 3 consecutive singles over the next few ends. A single on the 11th end got the Ballymena score moving again and over the next 5 ends they added another 8 shots to their total to lead by 20 shots to 4 with only 2 ends left to play. With the game in the bag Elliott’s men took their foot off the gas and the home rink picked up 5 shots to close the gap to 11 shots with the final score 20-9.