Portglenone safely through in Irish Senior Cup

PORTGLENONE kick-started their season after two league defeats by progressing to the second round of the Irish Senior Cup with a 13-shot success over Donaghadee on Saturday.

Across the green there was nothing between the two sides after five ends, with the visitors edging ahead 16-17.

After 10 ends the home side had nudged in front with a scoreline of 35-33 and after 15 ends had been played, Portglenone had stretched their lead to 12 shots, leading 58-44.

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With the match completed, it was the Gortgole Road men who were progressing through to the next round with a comfortable 76-63 scoreline.

On Rink 2 Mark Pearson, Stephen Young, Geoff Padgett and Chris Jones took on the rink skipped by W Brown.

The first four ends where shared with singles and a series of four 2s for the loss of 3 shots saw Chris lead 10-5 after ten ends.

The tide shifted during the next nine ends with the visitors scoring 12 shots with the loss of only 4, leaving Chris frustrated and 14-17 down. The last two ends were shared giving the visitors a 15-18 win.

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On Rink 3 Adam Hunter, Tommy McCart, Peter McCann and Eamon McCann played A Austin.

Eamon stormed into a 7-2 lead after 5 ends, however, a 1,1,1,2,1 sequence by the visitors swung the match back in their favour at 7-8 after 10 ends.

Eamon’s rink responded well and dug in over the next eight ends scoring 2,2,1,3,1 for the loss of three singles to take control of the match at 16-11 and after sharing the last three ends with two shots each, Eamon’s rink ran out 18-13 winners.

On Rink 4 Andrew Millar, Brian Jones, Jim Gaul and Keith Padgett took on the rink skipped by W McDowell.

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Young Andrew Millar was making his debut in the Irish Cup and turned in a superb performance at lead. This was a tight contest over the first half of the game with the visitors taking a 10-13 lead at halfway.

However, during the second half of the game, the visitors stretched their lead and ran out 17-23 winners. In the end the margin of victory flattered the Donaghadee rink as some excellent bowls were played by all four of Keith’s rink without the desired outcome.

On Rink 5 it looked like it was going to be one of those days for Patsy Boorman, Frank Jackson, Aaron Foster and Roy Hunter who were playing Colin Williamson’s rink.

Despite playing some good bowls, Roy found himself facing a scoreline of 1-7 after the opening five ends.

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This spurred the rink into action and an incredible sequence of 4,2,2,1,1,1,2,1,4,2,2,2,1 saw Roy open up an insurmountable 26-7 lead. This run of scoring on 13 ends in a row knocked the wind out of the visitors, and despite losing a couple of singles in the last two ends Roy was able to see out the game, winning 26-9.

Hopefully this result with boost the confidence of the Portglenone side and spur them on in their ongoing league campaign.

Portglenone have been drawn away to Musgrave in the next round of the Irish Senior Cup and the Ports were back in league action last night (Monday) with a home match against Dunluce.