Broughshane make slight inroads into Michelin’s lead

The Woodside Road team recorded their eighth win from eight league games but they may yet rue dropping one-and-a-half points at lowly JTI.

Timothy Rock’s rink inflicted a rare defeat on Wesley Caldwell, while Billy Lynn and Grant Robinson’s foursomes split their point in an 8-8 tie. Graham Wilson and Matthew Boyd’s rinks kept Michelin’s title defence firmly on track.

Earlier in the week, Broughshane had picked up four points at Portglenone Community Centre, with Kevin O’Kane’s win over Doran Turtle preventing a clean sweep. The Knockan Road side’s other rinks - skipped by Andy Morrison, David Morrison and Alan Cahoon - all had something to spare in their victories.

It wasn’t such a good week for Broughshane’s ‘B’ team club-mates as they slumped to a heavy defeat at Old Bleach. Neil Booth’s rink led the way with a 28-0 eclipse of George Davidson, while Jonathan Millar, Mervyn McDonald and Bryan Magrath also skipped winning rinks as the Randalstown side ran out 46-shot winners.

DIVISION TWO

BIBC took another step towards an instant return to the top flight by beating Golf Seniors.

In the opening half, Roy Torrington and Ivan McMaster’s rinks could not be separated in a 6-6 draw but Stephen Shields’ rink opened up a big half-time lead for ‘BI’ by beating Ian Lecky.

Tommy Hill added to that advantage for the Old Ballymoney Road side after the interval and although John Nichols’ rink pulled a point back for the golfers, BIBC ran out 12 shot winners.

Another of the promotion challengers, Services ‘A’, suffered a surprise reverse at home to All Saints. In a classic ‘game of two halves’, Services had worked hard to establish a three shot lead at the break, thanks to narrow wins from Pauline Wilson and Des McNeill.

But all that was undone as Tony Dillon’s All Saints quartet overcame Bill Kitson by 13 shots and Anthony Mitchell’s rink provided the icing on the cake for Saints with a four shot win over Mark Shaw.

Harryville Community Centre claimed a victory from their trip to Moneyglass, who are having a poor season by their own standards.

Moneyglass looked to be in a promising position at the interval after a nine-shot win for Henry Marron’s rink, although Harryville also had a point on the board at that stage thanks to Harold Smyth’s single shot win over Henry Graham.

Tom Magee’s rink claimed another point for ‘MG’ but the game-changer came as Gary Worthington’s Harryville foursome outscored Sean McNeilly by 20 shots to a solitary single.

Clough Rangers brought Glenravel’s recent run of good form to an end with a three-shot win. Mal Norton and R Kirkpatrick’s first half rinks won for Clough and even though Martin O’Neill and Martin McKeegan’s rinks won for Glenravel after the break, their comeback came up just short.

DIVISION THREE

There was a shock result as leaders Antrim IBC suffered a ‘derby’ defeat at the hands of Round Tower. Darren McCullough’s rink gave Antrim a confident start with a win over Helen Totten but that was as good as it got for Antrim, as Round Tower claimed the remaining points through wins from Michael Murphy, John O’Neill and Michael Teer.

That allowed First Ballymena to close the gap on Antrim after they won at Eaton Park. Roland Woods’ rink was the star turn for the church side with a 19-4 win over Gary Shaw, while Jim Lilley’s rink also won and Lyle McQuitty claimed half a point from an 8-8 stalemate with John Carruthers. Bonar Hill’s rink claimed the other Eaton point.