Seniors avenge opening day league defeat by NICS

SATURDAY was the second round of the Irish Bowling Association Senior Cup.

Ballymena Seniors had an interesting home tie against NICS who had inflicted an opening day league defeat on the Braid men however there was never any danger of another Ballymena defeat as the Seniors put in a dominant performance to progress in to the next round by a 127-52 scoreline.

On rink 1 Steven Shields, Graham Wilson, Andrew Morrison and Nigel Robinson were in complete control of their match against the NICS rink skipped by S Hegan.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

After 4 ends the Ballymena men lead by 10-0. NICS scored single on the next end, but by the time they scored again the Braid men had collected another 14 shots. Robinson's men continued to score heavily on their way to an impressive 40 shots to 6 victory.

David Torrington, Andrew Bonnar, Andrew Duncan and Jim Baker made a steady start against B Leonard on rink 2, and a count of 6 shots on the seventh end saw the Ballymena take a decisive 9 shot lead.

The Braid men continued to make steady progress and a count of 5 shots on the final end topped off a very good performance which saw the home rink win by 28 shots to 14.

On rink 3 Steven Falls, JR Nicholl, Andrew Kyle and Steven Coleman were drawn against D Hunter on rink 3. After ten ends it was the home rink that lead by 13 shots, however three ends later the visitors had reduced the margin to only 6 shots.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The Ballymena men then stepped up a gear collecting 17 unanswered shots over the next 4 ends to lead by 35 shots to 13 and by the end of the game the Braid men had also scored 40 shots to the visitors 13 in another very competent performance.

The closest game of the day was on rink 4 where Jonathan Millar, James Gaston, Mark Torrington and Sammy Allen took on A Montgomery.

The Ballymena men made a good start and after 11 ends they held a slender 3 shot lead. Four ends later it looked like the Ballymena men would record another comfortable victory as they held a 10 shot lead, but even thought the visitors had nothing really to play for, they hit back, winning the last five ends to level the game at 19-19.

This was an excellent performance from the Ballymena men and in the next round they face a trip to Salisbury.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

On Tuesday night (tonight) the Seniors entertain NIPGL Senior League 1 leaders, Old Bleach at the Old Ballymoney Road green and then Cliftonville are the visitors on Thursday night when Ballymena Seniors take on Cliftonville in the first round of the NIPGL Senior Cup.

JUNIORS

Ballymena Juniors were due to play Hilden in the second round of the IBA Junior Cup on Saturday, however Hilden were unable to fulfil the fixture and so Ballymena Juniors progress in to the third.

Tonight (Tuesday), the Juniors travel to play local rivals Old Bleach in the NIPGL Junior League Division 1 and then on Thursday night they travel to Castleton in the first round of the NIPGL Junior Cup.

Related topics: