Juniors suffer single shot defeat at home

Ballymena Juniors went in to their match full of confidence after collecting a ‘full house’ of 7 points on their travels the previous week when they demolished Forthriver by a massive 61 shots, however even though three rinks won it was Downpatrick who were able to claim overall victory when one of their rinks recorded an emphatic victory, to win 82-81 overall.

Alistair Coleman, Alan Stewart, Ivan Lynn and John Coulter made a great start against M Smyth when they picked up a count of 6 shots on the first end.

The visitors however were not deflated by this start and two counts of 4 shots on the fourth and fifth ends saw them come back in to the game. The game was close over the next few ends and after 11 ends it was the visitors who held a 3 shot lead.

The Ballymena men controlled the remainder of the game, winning eight of the remaining ends to run out victors by 22 shots to 18.

It was a game of two halves on rink 2 where Alan McAuley, John Murdock, Danny McCullough and Jimmy Larkin took on the Downpatrick rink skipped by D McCann. Larkin’s men got off to an excellent start when they won nine of the first eleven ends to open up a 20-6 lead.

The second half of the game was a completely different story with the visitors winning eight of the remaining ends to reduce the deficit to only 4 shots with the scoreboard reading 24-20 in favour of the home rink.

Michael Wilson, John McFall, James Gaston and Andrew Armstrong were never behind in their game against K McMullan.

A count of 4 shots on the first end got them off to a good start and a further count of 4 shots on the sixth end saw the Ballymena men take an 8 shot lead.

After 16 ends the margin was 14 shots, however even though it was the Downpatrick rink finished the stronger, it could not stop the home rink from recording a 27-17 victory.

Billy McCandless, Stephen Coleman, and Roy Torrington were joined by Nigel McAleese at third and they were drawn against P Rooney.

Unfortunately for Torrington’s men it was a game to forget as the visiting rink could do no wrong as they opened up a ten shot lead after only 6 ends. The Downpatrick men dominated the game and restricted the home rink to only 2 single shots over the first nineteen ends by which time the visitors had opened up a 27-3 lead.

The Ballymena won the last two ends, picking up 5 shots, but it could not disguise a disappointing day for the Braid men as they had to concede defeat by 27 shots to 8.

Ballymena Juniors will have to put this result behind them as this week they begin the defence of their Irish Bowling Association Junior Cup with an away tie to Dungiven and then on Tuesday night it is back to the NIPGL Junior Division 1 with another away match at Larne.