‘B’ team remain on trail of cup success

This turned out to be a close match but it was the Ballymena men who prevailed to progress in to the next round.

On rink 1 Mark Pearson, Arnold Kenny, Nigel McFadden and John Coulter took on N Clements. The Braid men took an early lead when they won 2 of the first 3 ends but the home rink scored heavily over the next 4 ends to turn a 1 shot deficit in to an 8 shot advantage. The Ballymena rink hit back and over the next 11 ends Coulter’s men had cut the Belmont lead to only a single shot but unfortunately the visitors could not maintain this momentum as the home rink won the 3 remaining ends claim victory by 21 shots to 14.

The Ballymena rink of Billy McCandless, Stuart McCarthy, Danny McCullough and Ivan Lynn were always in control of their game against P Hamilton on rink 2. The home rink could only win 3 of the first 10 ends and at this stage of the contest the visitors led by 11 shots to 4. Four ends later the score had moved on to 13-8 but the Ballymena men effectively won the game over the next 2 ends when they picked up counts of 5 and 4 to lead by 14 shots. Five singles were scored over the remaining ends and it was the visitors who came off the green in buoyant mood having claimed an excellent 25-10 victory.

On rink 3 Leslie Barr, Joe McKeown, Geoff Padgett and Chris Wilson were involved in a close game against W Busby. With 4 ends played the scores were tied at 4-4 and eight ends later the scores were still level at 13-13. Over the next 5 ends the Ballymena men outscored the Belmont rink by 5 shots to 2 to lead by 3 shots with only 4 ends to play and with the 2 rinks sharing 4 singles over the remaining ends it left the Braid men victorious by 20 shots 17.

There was a high scoring game on rink 4 between Alan McAuley, John McFall, Tommy Hill and Roy Torrington and the Belmont rink skipped by S Swift. The Belmont opened up a 6 shot lead after only 2 ends but 3 ends later the visitors were back on level terms with the score board reading 7-7. The home rink appeared to take charge of the game when they outscored Torrington’s men by 11 shots to 2 over the next 6 ends but the Braid men hit back and over the next 5 ends they wiped out the Belmont advantage to draw level again with the scores level at 21-21. Two shots on the next end saw the Braid men take the lead for the first time but it was to be short lived when the Belmont rink won 3 of the remaining ends to claim a hard fought 29-24 win.