Ladies suffer first defeat of league campaign

This turned out to be a very exciting game with the result of the match in the balance right up until the final ends, however it was the visitors who claimed 6 of the 7 points on offer.

On rink 1 Dorothy McKee, Jackie Hogg, Sile Garvey and Donna McCloy took on J Wilson. The visitors took an early lead when they picked up a count of 4 shots on the 5th end, but the Braid ladies matched this score on the 8th end to keep the game close. The Portstewart rink then won the next 4 ends to open up a gap of 8 shots and this proved too much for the Ballymena rink who eventually went down by 20 shots to 14.

Sally Carson, Gladys Power, Barbara Burnett and Sarah Jane Coleman were the only winning rink of the day. They locked horns with B O’Neill on rink 2 and they made an excellent start winning 7 of the opening 10 ends to build up a 13 shot advantage. The visitors had the better of the closing ends but the Ballymena rink had done enough in the first part of the game as they went on to claim a well deserved victory by 19 shots to 12.

There was a low scoring game on rink 3 where Jennie McCready, Marie Houston, Iris Millar and Barbara Cameron took on T O’Neill as only a total of 22 shots were scored over the regulation 18 ends. Scores were level at 4-4 after 8 ends and the rinks could still not be separated at 16 ends as the scoreboard read 10-10. Unfortunately for the Braid ladies it was the visitors who claimed victory with 2 single shots over the last couple of ends to wrap up a 12-10 victory.

Jean Rainey, Kathleen Hoey, Pat Allen and Jennifer Dowds also had a close game on rink 4 against N Allen. The scores were tied at 8-8 after 8 ends, 12-12 after 12 ends and 16-16 after 15 ends. The Ballymena ladies scored a single on the 16th end to take the lead, however the visitors replied with 2 shots on the penultimate end which was followed by another single shot to run out victors by 19 shots to 17.

Next Wednesday the Ballymena ladies will be looking to get back to winning ways when they continue their league campaign with a home game against Coleraine.