'˜C' team bowlers overcome Dubliners to reach semi-finals

The Ballymena C team before the start of their Irish Cup match against CYM.

On rink 1 Keith Burnett, Leslie Jackson, Andy Hill and Derek Greer took on the visiting rink skipped by G Morrin.

A slow start from the home rink saw the visitors 7-2 up after 5 ends, but 6 shots over the next two ends, saw the home rink take the lead for the first time in the match.

The visitors fought back with counts of 2 and 6 over the next two ends to retake the lead by 7 shots, however the Ballymena men outscored their opponents by 17 shots to 6, including two counts of 5, over the next 12 ends to end up 25-21 winners.

John Montgomery, Roy Kernohan, William Crawford and John Elliot always looked comfortable on rink 2 against B Morrissey’s visiting rink.

The home rink went 5-0 up, but the visitors pegged them back with a 1,3,4 over the next 3 ends to take a three shot lead.

The next 10 ends were tit for tat and after 15 ends the score was 17-15 in favour of the home side.

Elliot’s men then found another gear and finished strongly, picking up a count of 4, three singles and a 2 on the final end to close out a deserved 26-15 victory.

The only consolation for the visitors came on rink 3 where Bertie Thompson, Robert McCready, Dessie Shaw and Liam Lyness had a tough battle against H Barry.

This was a tight game and after 7 ends the visitors held a narrow 1 shot lead.

The Dublin rink then went on to pick up 5 unanswered shots in the next 4 ends to extend that lead to 6 shots which they held on to until the 18th end.

Although the hosts won two of the last three ends, they couldn’t stop a count of 5 on the 20th end and eventually lost a hard fought match 19-11.

In the closest match of the day William McNabb, Gary Shaw, Robert Mark and Alec Wilson had a tough time against P Meade’s Dublin rink.

The home rink had a sluggish start which meant that after 8 ends they were staring at a 7 shot deficit but they rallied and outscored their opponents 12 shots to 1 over the next seven ends, including counts of 4 and 3.

This gave them a 4 shot advantage with six ends remaining.

The visitors produced a fightback of their own to take a slender 1 shot lead going into the last end.

However the Braid men wouldn’t give up and a count of 2 on the last end gave the narrowest of victories to win by a shot.