Ladies first!

BALLYMENA ladies continued their good form in the PTWBA Senior League Division 1 when they travelled to Coleraine last week and recorded an excellent 76-52.25 victory to keep them on top of the League.

Young Sile Garvey came in to skip the Ballymena rink which included Megan Wilson, Gladys Power and Dorothy McKee on rink 2.

The first 10 ends was a strange affair. The Ballymena rink made a good start and with the help of two counts of 3 and a further count of 5 they lead by 8 shots after 7 ends only to concede two singles and a count of 6 to leave the scores tied at 12-12.

Four ends later however the visitors had opened up a 7 shot lead and they were able to keep their noses in front until the end to record a 21-18 victory

Unfortunately Coleraine Ladies were a player short and so Linda McCullough, Peggy Pinkerton, Erin Smith and Sarah Jane Coleman took on a rink containing only 3 players and skipped by M Crawford.

The first half of the game was close, however a count of 5 shots in favour of the home rink on the 12th end saw them open up a 7 shot lead. This appeared to refocus the Ballymena rink and it was the Braid ladies who finished strongly to win by 20 shots to 19 (adjusted to 14.25).

There was a very low scoring match on rink 4 where Jennie McCready, Marie Houston, Iris Millar and Donna McCloy were drawn against L Evans with only 24 shots scored over the regulation 18 ends.

The visitors played the better bowls during the game and restricted their opponents to only six singles and a count of 3 shots as the Ballymena Ladies went on to record a 15-9 victory.

Jean Rainey, Kathleen Hoey, Pat Allen and Jennifer Dowds were in good form against E Arlow on rink 5 and at the halfway stage of the game they lead by 5 shots. They continued to play the better bowls and in the end they ran out comfortable winners by 20 shots to 11.

The Ladies are back in action on Wednesday 21st July when they entertain Portstewart

LADIES 'B'

Ballymena Ladies 'B' entertained Ballycastle last week. Both of the rink games were very close however it was Ballycastle ladies who claimed the overall win by 37 shots to 33.

Lorraine Harris, Dymphna McKavanagh and Sally Carson took on K McGill in a very high scoring game on rink 2 with the lead changing hands on several occasions.

The visitors lead by 2 shots after 5 ends, but 3 ends later it was the Ballymena ladies who were ahead by 2 shots. Seven shots to the visitors on the next 2 ends saw them take a 5 shot lead, but again the Ballymena ladies hit back and outscored their opponents by 10 shots to 1 over the next 5 ends to take a 4 shot lead.

Unfortunately for the Braid ladies they were unable to score over the last three ends with the visitors scoring 5 shots to claim victory by 21 shots to 20.

There was never much in the game on rink 3 where Elsie McAlonan, Eileen Courtney and Barbara Burnett were drawn against M McGill. The scores were level after 8 ends with the score board reading 7-7. Seven ends later there was still nothing to separate the two rinks to record a 16-13 win.

The Ladies ‘B’ are also back in action on Wednesday 21st July when they travel the short distance to Kilrea.

INTER-ASSOCIATION CHAMPIONSHIPS

This year’s Ladies Senior Inter Association Championships took place last week in Dublin and there were six ladies from Ballymena Bowling Club, Barbara Cameron, Sarah Jane Coleman, Jennifer Dowds, Sile Garvey, Donna McCloy and Erin Smith selected to represent the Provincial Towns Association (PTWBA) in the competition.

The PTWBA who won the title last year got off to a great start in their first game when they defeated NIWBA by 39 shots. This match was played on the new synthetic green at Leinster Bowling Club.

Unfortunately the PTWBA were beaten in their next game by NIWPGL by 11 shots and even though they won their final match against LBLI by 38 shots, it was not enough to retain the title which was won by NIWPGL with PTWBA finishing in runners up spot.

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