Another maximum haul for Seniors

WITH Jim Baker and Steven Shields due to be away on International duty last weekend, Pickie very kindly agreed to bring the league match forward to last Monday night.

It was not, however, a good night for the visitors as the Ballymena men were in excellent form and it was the home team who claimed a maximum seven points from a 119-51 victory.

On rink 1 Steven Shields, David Duncan, Mark Torrington and Andrew Kyle were drawn against D Kennedy. The scores were level at 4-4 after 5 ends, but the game changed in favour of the Braid men on the next end when they picked up a count of 6 shots. They also won the next 4 ends to open up a 12 shot lead.

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Three ends later however the Bangor rink had reduced the deficit to 5 shots, but Kyle's men scored a count of 5 shots on the 14th end to take the game away from the visitors and the Ballymena rink finished off the night in style when they lifted another count of 6 shots to record an emphatic 31-15 victory.

Andrew Morrison made his debut at skip against P Campbell on rink 2. He was joined by his team mates James Gaston, Graham Wilson and Roy Torrington and the man from Ahoghill took to his new role like a duck to water playing an excellent conversion shot with his first bowl to lie shot with five Pickie bowls against him.

This set the tone for the match with the Ballymena men dominating the game throughout. The visitors could only score on two of the first 11 ends and by that stage the Braid rink had opened up a 14 shot lead.

This was still the margin after 17 ends and 10 shots without reply over the last 4 ends saw the Ballymena men record an excellent 32-8 victory.

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The closest game of the night was on rink 3 where Steven Falls, JR Nicholl, Jimmy Hodges and Steven Coleman were drawn against R Irwin.

The Ballymena rink made good steady progress over the first 12 ends and appeared to be cruising to a comfortable win, however the visitors stunned Coleman's men when they lifted a count of 6 shots on the 13th end to reduced the deficit to only 3 shots.

Thirteen turned out to be unlucky for the visitors as the Braid men then proceeded to win 5 of the next 6 ends to lead by 11 shots and even though the visitors won the last 2 ends it was not enough to stop the home rink from recording a 24-16 victory.

The final match of the evening was on rink 4 where David Torrington, Andrew Bonnar, Jonathan Millar and Andrew Duncan took on J Nutt.

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Five singles were scored over the first 5 ends with the home rink holding a 3-2 lead, however scores of 6 and 4 over the next two ends saw Duncan's rink take control of the game. After 10 ends the Braid men lead by 6 shots but they were in devastating form over the next 8 ends outscoring their opponents by 19 shots to 1 to increase their lead to 24 shots.

The visitors did manage to get in to double figures by winning the last 3 ends but it could not take the gloss over a superb display from the young Ballymena rink who eventually won by 32 shots to 12.

The Seniors are next back in action on Saturday, July 24, when they travel to Castleton in the quarter final of the IBA Senior Cup.

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