Banbridge under-25 players impress to gain Irish call-ups

The four players involved were Pete Haughey, Matthew Cromie, Adam Cromie and Alex Cromie who also had the honour of captaining the team with our own Clifford Dennison at the helm as team manager also.

Whilst the weekend may not have went as planned for the NIBA team, the four representatives from the Bann did catch the eye on several occasions with Alex picking up the Daniel Donnan Shield for the NIBA player of the series.

This also did not go unnoticed either by the Irish selectors with Adam, Pete and Alex gaining selection for the under-25 British Isles Series that will again be back at Belmont BC, Belfast with Alex being handed the captains armband once again for this upcoming series.

After finding out on his selection as captain Alex said: “Words cannot express how honoured and delighted I am to be selected for Ireland for the upcoming British Isles Under-25 Series, but to be selected as captain… that’s a dream come true”.

The club as whole would like to wish the lads all the best for the series and know they will do the club proud as they always do.

This week will be a busy week for our senior, veteran and super six teams with a lot of competitions being played to a close this week and lots of silverware on offer.

The veterans team play in the final of the Thornton Cup at Knock as well as pairs and triples finals which the club are also represented in and will be looking to finish the season strong and keep up the good form they have been in all season. Our last remaining super 6 team, Bann-anarama, will face the Garvey Groundhogs at Ward Park, Bangor on Wednesday with the winners facing the winner of the tie between Bangor Seasiders and Dee Dynamite with the final to be played the following evening to fight it out for this seasons super 6 title.

This now leaves the Bann men with one game left on Saturday at home to Dungannon on with it all on the line, looking to bring home their first league title since 1985.

On Saturday past Banbridge junior team hosted relegation rivals North down with the visitors one point ahead of them in the league. This was a massive game to try and maintain division two status for next season.

The Bann put on an impressive display for those in attendance and run out 99-52 winners, claiming six points and in doing so to leave themselves four points above the relegation zone, putting themselves four points ahead of North Down with two games left to play.

Rink scores: Banbridge 99 vs 52 North Down: W Steenson 17 vs 20 S Bewley; B Davis 30 vs 12 P McMeekin; M Nelson 26 vs 8 R Simpson; J Major 26 vs 12 R Hayes.