Juniors leave Pickie in a pickle

It was a very fruitful journey for the visitors who claimed all 7 points on offer from a 92-60 win.

Alan Stewart, Joe McKeown, Norman Armstrong and Jimmy Hodges made a great start on rink 1 against B Wallace and after 6 ends they had already established a 10 shot lead.

By the 11th end however the home rink had reduced the arrears to only 3 shots, but the visitors dug in an 4 ends later the 10 shot lead had been re-established and they were able to maintain a comfortable advantage and eventually won by 24 shots to 13.

The scores were level after 11 ends where Billy McCandless, Joe McKeown, Nigel McAleese and Roy Torrington took on J Craigan, however 10 shots scored over the next 5 ends was enough to give the visitors the edge and it was the Braid rink who went on to record a 24-17 victory.

On rink 3 Alistair Coleman, Stephen Coleman, Ivan Lynn and John Coulter were never in any real danger of losing their game against W Montgomery.

The Ballymena men controlled the game right from the start and the home rink could only score on 3 of the first 12 ends as the visitors moved in to a 10 shot lead. The remaining ends were closer, but in the end the Ballymena rink were able to coast to a 23-12 victory

Alan McAuley, Michael Wilson, Danny McCullough and Jimmy Larkin started strongly against R Rosborough on rink 4 and after 4 ends they lead by 9 shots to 0.

The home rink however did not lie down and over the next 14 ends they gradually reduced the Ballymena advantage and going in to the final end the Pickie rink trailed by only one shot. Thankfully the Braid men steadied themselves to claim 2 shots on the last end to record a 21-18 victory.

The Juniors are next back in action on Saturday 24th July when they travel to Dunbarton in the quarter final of the IBA Junior Cup.