Lady bowlers stretch unbeaten sequence

The omens however were not good for the Ballymena ladies because due to work and other commitments they were only able to field 14 players whereas their opponents, Dunluce were at full strength.

The significance of this was that two of the Ballymena rinks would have to forfeit a quarter of their score and this was a definite advantage for the visitors.

The Ballymena team however took to the green in determined mood and when the game had been concluded they had claimed 5 of the 7 points on offer to retain their unbeaten run in their quest to reclaim the PTWBA Senior League title.

On rink 1 Barbara Burnett, Sile Garvey and Sarah Jane Coleman started well against J Sharpe and after 6 ends they had opened up a 7-1 lead, however 5 ends later the visitors had reduced the margin to only a single shot.

The Ballymena ladies then won 5 of the next 6 ends to increase their lead to 9 shots and even though the Dunluce ladies won the final end it was not enough to claim victory with the final score 16-11 in favour of the Braid rink (adjusted score 12-11).

There was a low scoring game on rink 2 were a total of 22 shots were scored over the 18 ends in the contest between Jean Rainey, Jackie Hogg, Dorothy McKee and Jennifer Dowds and the Dunluce rink skipped by A Elliott.

At the half way stage of the game the Ballymena rink held a slender 6-5 lead however they dominated the second period of the game, winning 7 of the 9 remaining ends to record a well deserved 15-7 victory.

Maureen Greer, Gladys Power, Pat Allen and Donna McCloy were involved in a close contest against A McClelland on rink 3.

The Braid ladies took an early 4 shot lead after 2 ends, however the visitors scored 2 counts of 3 shots over the next 2 ends and when they followed this with 2 singles this put them in the driving seat.

The Ballymena ladies fought hard to claw back the deficit but the margin remained at 4 shots after 9 ends and that was still the difference between the 2 rinks after 16 ends.

The visitors scored a single on the penultimate end and even though the Braid ladies claimed 3 shots on the final end they had come up just short with the Dunluce ladies victorious by 16 shots to 14.

On rink 4 Marie Houston, Iris Millar and Barbara Cameron took on P Calvin and with the help of a count of 5 shots on the 4th end and a count of 3 shots on the 8th end they held a 7 shot lead at the half way stage of the game.

The visitors however won 4 of the next 6 ends to close the gap to only 2 shots and with the Ballymena rink losing a quarter of their score it was imperative that they finished strongly. The Braid ladies did their best, winning 2 of the 3 ends remaining to leave the final score 16-13 in their favour, however there was disappointment for the home rink as the adjusted score handed victory to the visitors by 13 shots to 12.

This Wednesday afternoon the ladies will hope to continue their unbeaten start to the season when they travel to local rivals Ballymoney.

Graham Wilson