Portglenone bowlers claim excellent victory at Coleraine

The Lodge Road venue has not been a happy hunting ground for the wee Port, but that was all about to change.

On Rink 1, Kieran Adams, Peter McCann, Adam Hunter and Eamon McCann were drawn against the rink skipped by Victor Dallas.

The early stages of this match went the way of the home side who opened up a 5 shot advantage to lead 6-1 after 5 ends. Over the next 5 ends the Coleraine rink increased their advantage further and led 14-3 at the halfway point. Eamon’s rink dug deep and showed some tenacity and over the next 5 ends closed the deficit to 4 shots at 15-11 down after 15 ends.

Eamon’s rink continued the fight back in the final ends and in the 20th end led by 1 shot, however, a fortuitous effort by Victor Dallas with the very last bowl of the game saw the Portglenone lying shot be removed for a count of 3 to give the Coleraine rink the point and game at 19-17.

On Rink 2, Stephen Young, Aaron Foster, Mark Jones and Chris Jones were drawn against Jonny Calvin.

Again, in a mirror image of the first rink, Chris found himself with a 10 shot deficit after 5 ends losing 12-2. The next 5 ends were nip and tuck, but it was the Portglenone rink who closed the gap slightly to 16-4 down at halfway.

It was here that the game burst into life for the wee Port, and a run of 1, 2, 1, 6, 1, 1 in the next 6 ends saw Chris’s rink draw level at 16-16. Disappointingly, the rink was unable to sustain the pressure and went on to lose the game 25-17.

Rink 3 saw Mark Pearson, Frank Jackson, Paul Gray and Roy Hunter take on Coleraine’s Ian Ross. The first 5 ends of this match were tit for tat and the game was level at 4-4.

The next 5 ends were to go to the Portglenone rink who played some good bowls to open up a 4 shot advantage at the halfway point at 11-7.

After 15 ends the Portglenone rink found themselves increasing their lead over Ian’ rink to 7 shots at 17-10. This was an impressive turnaround from the rink’s previous performance and the shots kept on coming as Roy’s rink notched their first win of the season beating Ian’s rink 23-13.

Finally, on Rink 4, Frankie Cassidy, Jim Gaul, Gary Merron and Joe Moore were drawn against the rink skipped by David Gaile.

Right from the off, this would prove to be another fantastic day for Joe’s rink and after 5 ends Joe had whitewashed the Coleraine rink to lead 10-0. The next 5 ends were shared and after 10 ends Joe’s lead was 9 shots at 14-5.

The next five ends again were shared with the highlight coming in the 14th end when Joe Moore facing a count of 6 shots against him, drew the jack with dead weight to claim the shot to the delight of the entire rink, particularly Jim Gaul, who was bowled over! The last few ends petered out and Joe claimed yet another victory for the wee Port winning 23-10.

A monumental effort by Portglenone and a fabulous result, coming from 20 shots behind to win 80-67 and claim 5 very valuable points.

Portglenone’s next match is at home to Dunluce in the Piggott Cup this Thursday night.