Bannsiders cruise to home victory

The visitors were newly promoted Limavady who always provide stern opposition. Despite the knockback from the previous week, Portglenone were in confident mood and this translated to a comfortable 95-69 shots win and a welcome 6 points.

On rink 1, Stephen Young, Peter McCann, Jonathan Reid and Eamon McCann took on the rink skipped by W Moore.

Eamon’s rink made the more comfortable start and opened up an 8-3 lead after 5 ends. The next 5 ends were fairly evenly shared to leave Eamon 14-8 ahead. The Limavady rink was struggling with the tricky rink 1 and after 15 ends Eamon had manufactured a significant 19-11 lead.

However, the tide changed on the 16th end, when the Limavady rink picked up a count of 6 shots to bring them back into the game and buoyed by this they levelled the game on the 20th end at 21-21. Eamon’s rink dug deep, and a great opening bowl from lead Stephen Young, gave Eamon the protection he needed to go on and win 23-21.

Mark Jones, Geoff Padgett, Aaron Foster and Chris Jones were drawn against S Corscadden on rink 2.

The Portglenone rink was the quickest out of the blocks again this week and had taken a 5-2 lead in the first 5 ends. However, this match would see-saw throughout the 21 ends and after 10 ends the Limavady rink had comeback to take a 9-11 lead.

Chris’s rink seemed to be struggling, however, they never lack fight, and after 15 ends had levelled the game at 13-13. Chris pressed on at this point and regained the lead with a 4, 1, 2, 1 sequence and went on to earn another point with a 21-17 victory.

On rink 3 Andrew Millar, Frankie Cassidy, Gary Merron and Keith Padgett faced Limavady’s Adrian Barr.

The opening ends were very even in this game, but a count of 4 shots on the 5th end gave Keith’s rink a 4 shot advantage to lead 8-4.

The Limavady rink fought back over the next 5 ends and took the lead 9-10. Adrian’s rink pushed on and at 15 ends held a significant 11-20 lead. This year Portglenone have developed a backbone and a stubbornness that perhaps has been missing in past years, and this was demonstrated by Keith’s rink as they fought back to within one shot to narrowly lose 21-22.

The big winners this week were on rink 4 with Jim Gaul, Kieran Adams, Paul Gray and Roy Hunter taking on the rink skipped by C Wylie.

Roy’s rink got off to a flyer to lead 7-1 after 5 ends. The rink continued to play superb bowls, inspired by the man of the match, Jim Gaul and after 10 ends Roy led 15-2. Seven more shots over the next 5 ends for the loss of a 2 seen Roy stretch his advantage to 22-4 after 15 ends.

Jim led superbly and Kieran, Paul and Roy all chipped in with their fair share of quality bowls, resulting in a convincing 30-9 victory and a much deserved point.

Portglenone are up to 4th in the League after this victory but face their sternest test of the season on Monday May 14, when they face the league leaders Portrush at home.