Midweek man feeling ‘Down’ in the dumps

Ballymena Midweek did not have the best of nights against Downpatrick last week.
Ballymena Mid-Week and Downpatrick players giving advice to team mates. INBT28-218ACBallymena Mid-Week and Downpatrick players giving advice to team mates. INBT28-218AC
Ballymena Mid-Week and Downpatrick players giving advice to team mates. INBT28-218AC

The visitors actually turned up a few minutes late due to traffic disruption in and around Belfast but they did not let this affect their game as they returned home with 6 of the 7 points on offer from a 77-53 success.

John Houston, Willie McNabb, Leslie Jackson and Davy Balmer took on B Jess and with 8 ends played the game was still in the melting pot with the visitors holding a slight 2 shot advantage.

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The remainder of the game however was a different story as the men from Downpatrick took total control. They scored 3 shots on the 7th end and when they added a further 5 shots on the next end the writing was on the wall for the Ballymena men. The visitors could do nothing wrong and they won all of the remaining ends to record a comprehensive 31-6 victory.

Keith Burnett, Gary Shaw, Robert Mark and John Greer shared 8 shots with the Downpatrick rink skipped by D Tumelty over the first 6 ends. The whole complexion of the game changed over the next 6 ends when the visitors outscored the Braid men by 7 shots to 2 to lead by 5 shots. The Ballymena rink fought hard to get back in to the game and with 2 ends remaining the deficit had been cut to 3 shots but the visitors claimed victory when doubled their advantage over the closing ends to leave the final score 18-12 in their favour.

John McAnally, Roy Kernohan, Dessie Shaw and Jim Cameron were level at 3-3 after 5 ends against P Magill. The Braid men claimed the upper hand when they lifted a count of 6 shots on the 6th end and when they followed this up with 3 more shots on the next end they were well on their way to victory. With 10 ends played the margin had increased to 10 shots and the Braid rink were able to maintain their advantage right up until the end of the game to win by 20 shots to 10.

Jackie Barr, Tommy Crooks, Paul Davison and Nigel McFadden made a slow start against J Mills and with 8 ends played the Braid men trailed by 8 shots. McFadden’s men rallied over the next 6 ends and they managed to reduce the arrears to only a single shot. Unfortunately they could not maintain the momentum as the visitors won the next 3 ends to increase their advantage to 6 shots with only 1 end remaining. The Ballymena men scored 3 shots on the final end but it was of little consolation as the Downpatrick rink claimed the victory by 18 shots to 15.

Ballymena Midweek Park’s next game is on July 24 when they entertain Dunbarton.