B team move into third place

PRESSING for a top four spot Lurgan B had no trouble in taking all seven points against a weakened Newtownabbey side last Saturday in Lurgan Park.

They never gave the visitors a chance to settle down and wins on all four rinks put them into third place in the fourth division.

On rink one for Lurgan skip Gerry Stewart, Billy Stanfield, Tony Haughey and Walter Cousins came from 3-0 behind to win six of the next seven ends to go 13-4 in front.

The Newtownabbey skip R. Randall took advantage of some slack bowling in the next six ends to go into a surprise 17-14 lead with only four ends remaining.

The visiting rink looked confident of victory when they led 18-16 with two ends left but the Lurgan third bowler, Billy Stanfield, ditched the jack for a count of six shots to help his rink to a 23-18 win.

Eric Dawson, Rodney McCarthy, Bobby Livingstone and Neil Sloan on two for Lurgan had to recover quickly from a 9-1 deficit after six ends to close the gap to 9-7 after ten ends.

They took advantage of the three bowler Newtownabbey rink under skip A. Sharp to win the next seven ends and go on to complete a clear 26-14 victory.

On rink three for Lurgan Sam Neill, Eamon Quinn, Vincent Devlin and Malcolm Lynch made an excellent tart by picking up a six shot and several three shots to go 16-0 in front after just five ends.

The Newtownabbey rink under skip J. O’Hara never recovered from this early setback and the Lurgan four showed no mercy to open up a 23-5 advantage with six ends left.

The visitors could only respond with seven shots in the closing stages as the Lurgan four ran out convincing 30-12 winners.

Derek Henderson, Dan Dempsey, Robert Kennedy and Melvyn Hamilton on four led 5-4 after five ends but showed their true form by winning seven of the next nine ends to increase their lead to 19-8.

The Newtownabbey rink under skip T. Thompson could only reply with seven shots in their four winning ends as the Lurgan rink went on to win 28-15.