BATTLE OF THE BALLYS

IT'S a battle of the Ballys – with a lot more than just local pride at stake.

When Ballymoney take on Ballymena this Saturday, both teams will be vying for the biggest prize in Irish bowls.

The Irish Senior Cup is the Holy Grail of bowls throughout Ireland

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Even though just over 20 miles separate the two clubs, they play in separate associations with Ballymoney in the Provincial Towns League, while Ballymena are one of the most successful clubs in the Private Greens League.

The locals - who were crowned league champions last week - sealed their place in the final with a 105 points to 70 win over Lisnagarvey.

And on Friday evening the club lifted the Mullan Cup.

"There's a fair bit of local rivalry between the two leagues and even more so given the geographical closeness of Ballymena and Ballymoney," says Ballymena Bowling Club PRO Graham Wilson, who is also a member of the senior team.

"We have only won the competition once in our history while Ballymoney haven't won it at all, but there's no danger of us having lost the hunger to win it.

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"It took us until 2008 to finally get the monkey off our backs by winning it and then last year we were beaten in the semi-finals by Cookstown, another Provincial Towns League team.

"Ballymoney will be an extremely tough assignment – they have an international player in Gary Kelly and they have been sweeping all before them in their own league.

"If we can play to our potential then we can certainly bring the trophy back – we probably haven't hit top form often enough this season but this is a one-off situation."

Ballymoney's Davy Walker says his side will be doing their utmost to ensure the trophy heads further north up the A26 come Saturday evening.

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He said: "Just as we had to do against Lisnagarvey, we'll attempt the same against Ballymena.

"I would say they are slight favourites, but if we can raise our game we'll definitely make a match of it."

A number of other bowling teams who have games scheduled for this Saturday are trying to rearrange them for other times so that as many supporters as possible can make the trip to Belmont.

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