First league win for Ballymena Senior Park

Artie McAuley, Derek Greer, John Millar and Arnold Kenny put in an excellent performance against H Gray on rink 1.

The visitors were only able to score on 6 of the regulation 21 ends as the Ballymena men ran out convincing winners by 24 shots to 10.

On rink 2 Keith Burnett, Neal Garrett, Robert McCready and John Elliott were involved in a low scoring game against the Albert Foundry rink skipped by R Craig.

A total of 18 shots were scored over the first 14 ends with the Braid rink holding a slender 2 shot lead, however the game changed in favour of the home rink over the next 2 ends when they picked up consecutive counts of 3 and they went on to win by 19 shots to 10.

Andy Hill, John Murdock, Gary Shaw and Tommy Hill were also involved in a close game against D Pratt on rink 3. The scores were level at 8-8 after 12 ends and 11-11 after 17 ends.

A single on the next end gave the Ballymena men the lead but the visitors hit back to score 6 shots on the next end to claim the point by 17 shots to 13.

Robert Mark, Alan O’Loan, George Beattie and Alex Wilson took on D Millar on rink 4. The visitors scored a single on the first end and this was the only time that they held the lead.

The Ballymena rink played very steady bowls over the course of the game on their way to a comfortable 24-16 victory.

NIPGL CUP

Ewarts 74, Ballymena Senior Park 64: Last Tuesday night Ballymena Senior Park travelled to Ewarts to complete their match in the first round of the NIPGL Senior Cup.

The game had to be abandoned the previous week when the Ewarts green flooded and while the visitors were always in the game, it was the home team who finished strongly to book their place in the next round.

Andy Hill, Robert McCready, Gary Shaw and Tommy Hill didn’t make the best of starts on rink 1 against T Mathers and after 11 ends they found themselves trailing by 6 shots.

The Ballymena men regrouped and found their form, winning the next 6 ends to take a 6 shot lead and even though the home rink won most of the remaining ends, it was the Braid quartet who held on to record a fine 22-19 victory.

On rink 2 Keith Burnett, Neal Garrett, Chris Wilson and John Elliott made a good start against the Ewarts rink skipped by H Magee. A count of 6 shots on the 3rd propelled the visiting rink in to a healthy 6 shot lead and this was still the margin after 10 ends.

Unfortunately for the Ballymena men the home rink restricted the visitors to only 3 more single shots over the remainder of the game as the Ewarts rink went on to claim victory by 19 shots to 14.

The game on rink 3 was pretty even over the first 13 ends where Robert Mark, Nigel McFadden, Alan O’Loan and George Beattie took on A Trewick.

The complexion of the game changed on the next end when the home rink scored a count of 5 shots to lead by 6 and the Ballymena rink never really recovered from this setback as the home rink went on the claim victory by 21 shots to 14.

There was a very close game on rink 4 where John Murdock, Derek Greer, John Millar and Arnold Kenny were drawn against W Fox. There were never more than 3 or 4 shots separating the rinks for the duration of the game and going in to the final end the scores were level at 14-14 however it was the home rink who scored a single shot on the last end to record a 15-14 victory.