Baptism of fire for the new-look Curran Seniors

The Curran was fielding a much changed team from last season, having lost three skips from last year. The club also welcomed back James Burns.

With so many enforced changes it certainly looks to be a tough year for the Curran team in Division One. But as the old saying goes, when one door closes another opens, and this surely is a big chance for those promoted through the team.

Geoff Falconer had Nigel Todd at lead, Rodney Newell at second and Chris McCullough at third. A slow start from the Curran four saw Whitehead take a 1-8 lead after five ends. Curran fell further behind and trailed 3-16 at 10 ends due to some fine deliveries from the Whitehead skip James Caldwell.

The time was now at hand for the Curran boys to show their mettle and with some excellent bowling from all four players they fought their way back into the match to level the scores 23 -23 at 20 ends.

An exciting last end ensued and, with the Curran lying one with only the skips to play, Geoff dragged the jack which unfortunately ended up nearest to a loose Whitehead bowl, which finished up as shot, gaining a point for the visitors.

The home side can certainly take a crumb of comfort from this result against the current league champions and if they perform to this standard every week they will certainly win their fair share of games.

Michael Dickey’s four of Tommy Porter, Simon Beggs and Jim McIlwrath again were slow to start against Barry Browne and trailed 1-10 after five ends and with Barry in full flow looked to be on the end of a heavy defeat. Michael narrowed the score over the next five to trail by six shots 6-12 This was as close as Michael got as Barry showed all his class with a range of drawing and driving shots out of the top drawer to run out 12-22 winners.

Michael’s four plugged away throughout the match and if not for Barry the score would certainly been much closer.

Raymond Robinson, back into skip this season, had Eddie McCartney at lead, Andy Thom at second and Pat McRandall at third. Raymond’s four had a steady start and trailed by 3-4 after five ends. At ten ends there was still only two shots between the teams, with Whitehead holding a 6-8 lead.

With encouragement from skip Stephen Moran, the Whitehead four then upped their game and steadily increased their lead over the second half of the game, winning six ends on the trot to eventually run out 12-21 winners. A mention for Andy Thom, who had an excellent game for the Curran

On rink four, the Curran welcomed back James Burns and he had Robert Bradley at lead, Darren Witherspoon at second and Billy Hunter as third. After five ends both teams were fairly evenly matched, with the Whitehead four just nosing ahead to lead 4-5.

The Curran four took a real pounding over the next five ends dropping a 4, 5 and a 3 in the process to fall 8-17 behind at 10 ends. This was probably the turning point of the game as the Curran four found this was too big a lead to overcome. Nn saying that, James and the boys made a real fight of it and clawed their way back finishing with a 2, 4, 4 to end up 20 – 24.

The final score was Curran 67 (0 points) – Whitehead 91 (7 points)

A real baptism of fire for the Curran boys in their first match and the only consolation is that probably the hardest match of the league season is out of the way. Thoughts must now turn to the next match, which is Newcastle at home, and to look forward to a more fruitful result.