Lurgan B dents neighbour’s title hopes on the park green

Lurgan B went for the win from the start to take a 12-shot lead across the rinks after 5-ends with Mike Parr’s and Billy Strain’s rinks leading the storm to be 10-1 and 7-2 up respectively.

With three rinks leading the charge the Lurgan side stretched their lead to 18 shots at the midpoint. While the visitors tried to claw their way back into the match the home side were still held on with a 9 shots lead. With the Dromore team sensing a surprise defeat Lurgan B added another amazing 30 shots over the last 6 ends to finish an excellent afternoon’s bowling with an incredible 84-63 win.

Robert Kennedy, Stephen Poots, Stewart Martin and Mike Parr excelled again to shoot into 10-1 lead after five ends. Keeping up the pressure on Dessie Breen’s rink, they stretched their lead to be ahead 20-9 after the three-quarter stage. With the Dromore rink having no answer to the Lurgan onslaught, the home rink charged on to a 28-14 win while taking seven shots off the last two ends.

On the far rink Victor Masters, Robert Dorman, Kieran Smyth and Billy Strain equalled Mike Parr’s rink’s performance. Taking Nigel Shaw’s rink by storm Strain’s rink rattled the opposition with an early 8-2 lead after six ends and went further ahead 16-7 after 12 ends.

The Dromore rink upped their game to narrow the Lurgan lead to 18-14 after 17 ends but a strong finish by the Lurgan rink put Shaw’s rink out of sight with an excellent 25-16 win.

Melvyn Hamilton, Darren Laverty, Simon Maguire and Eamonn Quinn were down 2-3 after four ends with the front end struggling on the fast green but they soon settled down to the pace to be in a 11-3 lead at the halfway stage.

With David Graham’s rink striking back the Lurgan Four’s lead was cut back to 11-9 but they got back into their game to go 15-9 ahead after 16 ends. However, Graham’s rink challenged again to cut the Lurgan Four’s score to 15-13. Quinn and his rink stuck to the task to win the last three ends and finish 19-13 up while securing another league good league point.

It was a tough afternoon’s bowling when Simon Hunter, John Murtagh, Gerard Devlin and Michael Bunting faced Alan Malcomson’s rink to be 6-17 down after 14 ends. Bunting’s rink tried their best to get back into their game by winning the majority of the remaining ends but lost out by 12-20.

Lurgan B are still holding on to fifth place in Division 3 while enjoying a superb season so far. Having a break from matches this weekend, they continue on Saturday week with a home match against Antrim Lawn and then on Saturday fortnight they finish one of their best seasons in years with an away match to Divis.