Bann bridge 39-year gap to lift league title

They went into Saturday with a one point advantage over Bangor in second place, meaning 6.5 points would lift the league title regardless of results elsewhere. Indeed the Bann men kept matters in their own hands with a 113-48 victory over Dungannon and claiming seven points, which proved vital as Bangor themselves had a clean sweep of points at home to Bessbrook.

Banbridge we had Mervyn Jess, John McCloughlin, Pete Haughey and Kyle Blakely up against the Dungannon rink skipped by Aidan Rafferty.

The lead changed several times in the opening stanza here with the sides back where they started after five ends, deadlocked at 4-4, with the visitors winning four out of the next five ends to hold a slender 8-7 lead at the halfway stage.

The tide would soon turn though in favour of the home team as they upped the anti to lead 14-10 after 15 ends and further pushed home their advantage down the run in, doubling their score over the last 6 ends by scoring heavily and come through to get the first rink win of the day by virtue of 28-13 score line.

On the second rink for the Bann we had Alex Cromie, Adam Cromie, Brendan Davis and Philip Cromie taking on the rink skipped by John Carson.

With the league on the line the Banbridge four here didn’t waste much time to put this one to bed as they shot into a 10-1 lead after five ends and even extending that lead to 16-2 after 10 ends of play. Skip Cromie and his charges knew at this point it was all about game management with them picking up a count of seven shots on the thirteenth end to all but end the contest and although the Dungannon rink fought back with a count of five shots the following end it was a case of too little too late as the Banbridge rink closed out the game with a huge 34-11 victory.

en Stevenson, Martin Nelson, Gareth McCloughlin and Gavan Blakely linied up against the visiting rink skipped by Colin Scott. This was an edge of your seat game here and the one that for a long time was in the balance with this ultra consistent Banbridge rink falling behind early on to trail 5-2 after five ends.

Blakely though rallied the troops to leave it a level game at the halfway stage with a score line of 9-9 with the Bann rink then falling behind again the following end they dug in once more to square the game at 14-14 after 15 ends.

With the rest of the games more or less settled all eyes were on this tie with a draw even enough to do the job for the Bann but as all great teams do they found their stride right when it mattered down the run in, limiting their opponents to just two single shots over the last six ends and close out the game 21-16 in what was a great display of fighting spirit seen many times this season right across the green.

On the final rink for Banbridge Seamus Skelton, Tony Bell, Clifford Dennison and James Kelly facing the Dungannon rink skipped by Andrew Hardy. In this match up their was only one team in it from start to finish as Kelly’s foursome won the first 14 ends of this game without reply to lead 21-0, something I have never seen in my time playing division one bowls and quite a feat. The visitors did mange to win three of the last seven ends but it didn’t put much of a dent in the score line as the experienced Bann rink run out easy winners by a score line of 31-8 and confirm Banbridge as division one champions for 2024.

And with that the senior team wrapped up their season in style bringing home the league title after a 39-year wait. The first thing to be said here is congratulations to each and everyone who played a part in this historic day and season for the club, be it big or small, one game played or appearing in all games, it takes much more than 16 players to win the league as has been highlighted all season.

A spokesperson said: "It is quite a feat for the club, who are on the up and up right across the board on many different fronts right now and even after losing a few players over the last few years, it shows that those who have come on board have helped the club make the transition from perennial runners up and also rans to the top team in the NIBA and one of the top teams in the country.

"One of the key factors in this success is also the experience that has been built up over the past few years, with the team gaining confidence that they can compete at the top table with any team on their day with numerous players this season having their best year to date, the improvement is clear to see and no reason this can’t continue for numerous seasons to come.

"With this current crop of players the focus next season will obviously be on retaining their NIBA league and cup titles but also to bring home the holy grail of Irish bowls, the Irish Senior Cup. This season they were pipped at home by eventual winners Portrush by a handful of shots, even though they were missing a few key players on the day which was probably their undoing ultimately.

"Aspirations off the green will turn to looking at ongoing lobbying with the local council to upgrade facilities at the King George V Playing Fields as it has been neglected in recent years and the green itself and surroundings require some TLC to bring them back up the standard that would be expected of Banbridge Bowling Club.

"Once that does happen we should have a club to be proud of all round with it only a mere few years ago that Banbridge hosted the Irish Senior Cup final and would be great to be in a position that hosting such events would be possible again but unfortunately it does require co-operation from ABC council that is not there currently."

Last Thursday morning our Veterans team took on Knock BC in the final of the Thornton Cup at Belmont BC. The game went right down to the wire with the lead swinging to and fro with the Bann men coming out on top eventually winning by 6 shots. In the afternoon 5 of them doubled up to play in the pairs and triples finals respectively, with Tony Bell and Martin Nelson claiming the pairs title and Ken Stevenson, Ross Crawford and Brendan Davis also winning the triples title, it was quite the day for the club once again.

Last Wednesday our last remaining Super 6 team Bann-anarama played in the semi final against the Garvey Groundhogs coming out on top 5.5 points to 3.5 points and then played Bangor Super Seasiders in the final on Thursday night. This was also a tight affair with the experienced pair of Kyle Blakely and Philip Cromie first off claiming 2.5 points in their tussle with husband and wife combo Elaine and Robert Hastings. With it still in the melting pot, as Banbridge pair Adam Cromie and Martin Nelson lost the first set and drew the second set against the home pair of Rodney McCutcheon and Mal McAllister, to add a half point to the Banbridge total. This then left brothers Matty and Alex Cromie to win the game for the Bann as they won both sets in their game against Sam Rodgers and Glen Brown, bringing home all three points on offer and another title for Banbridge as they won 6-3 overall.

Saturday proved to be a big day for our Junior Team also as they put a dent in Ormeau’s push for promotion by beating them 75-73 and taking home five points in the process which was vital for them to maintain Division 2 status as fellow relegation candidates North Down claimed 6 points, closing the gap to just three points in favour of Banbridge. With just one game left it goes down to the last round of games to see who is relegated to Division 3 with Banbridge at home to Whitehead and North Down away to promotion chasers Newcastle.

This means a win at home to the already relegated Whitehead team will keep Banbridge in Division 2 for the 2025 season. Rink scores from Saturday’s game: Ormeau 73 v 75 Banbridge; G Porter 20 v 19 R Crawford; R Pauley 12 v 16 F Larkin; J Hill 22 v 17 J Major; B McMillan 19 v 23 W Steenson

Irish Finals

We would like to wish all our representatives the best for the Irish finals taking place this coming weekend at Ward Park, Bangor, with semi finals on Friday and finals on Saturday, below are those who are in action on Friday along with times:-

Senior Fours - Brendan Davis vs F McCarthy (CYM Dublin) 9:30am

Open Pairs - James Kelly vs Mark Wilson (Cookstown) 2pm

Open Singles - Kyle Blakely vs Eamon Carruth (Crumlin Dublin)