Bushvale clinch bowling league for third year

As the Friendly Charity Bowling League came to its conclusion for another season, it was another close finish by the two clubs at the top with Bushvale managing to win the points needed to clinch the league cup from Billy Parish for the third consecutive year.

As normal, we closed our league with a triples competition. All nine clubs had two teams represented.

As bowling eighteen teams in one hall in one night would have led to a marathon session, we held it in the two town club halls, St James’ and St Patrick’s to whom we gratefully acknowledge their time and effort for the league.

After some great bowling from those involved we got to our final eight teams who then all, after terrific suppers in both halls, played the rest of the competition in St Patrick’s hall where the presentation of the sum of £1,200, which was raised through the sale of quiz sheets, was presented to the Alzheimer’s Society .

With two very good semi-finals and the Ballyweaney team having the biggest comeback of the night to win their game to reach the final, we all enjoyed watching the final between Ballyweaney and St Olcans into the wee small hours. Ballyweaney just got the upper hand of the game and came out eventual winners.

The Glebe Trophy final which was represented by the two top point-scoring teams in a separate competition played each other to determine a winner.

Billy Parish and St Olcans met in Toberdoney church hall for the game which Billy Parish dominated in the first half, leaving St Olcans a near-impossible task of catch up in the second half.

After getting Toberdoney’s usual standard of a terrific supper to whom we must also gratefully thank for their hard work for us, the two teams had much tighter scoring games but St Olcan’s never really got themselves into a position to threaten the Billy club with the overall score.

A cheque for £1,200 which was raised through collection on match nights was presented to the Northern Ireland Children to Lapland Trust on the night.

As a league, we would like to thank everyone who supported us this year in raising our highest ever total for two very worthy charities and as our next season (2012-2013) will be our 30th year of the league, we hope we can make a small difference to two more charities through our winters enjoyment.

The Fireside Quiz sheet winners were

1st - Hazel Shields

2nd - Mary Wright

3rd - Martin Black

Friendly Charity Bowling League final standings

All competitors in this section played 16

Bushvale tallied a score of 83.

Billy Parish tallied a score of 79.5.

St Olcan’s tallied a score of 70.

Toberdoney tallied a score of 62.5.

Ballyweaney tallied a score of 62

Cushendall tallied a score of 49.5

St Patrick’s tallied a score of 44.5

St James’ tallied a score of 31.5

Ramoan tallied a score of 21.5

The next prized up for grabs was the Glebe trophy. All competitors played 8.

Billy Parish tallied a score of 43.5

St. Olcans tallied a score of 35

Bushvale tallied a score of 33

Cushendall tallied a score of 31

Ballyweaney tallied a score of 28

Ramoan tallied a score of 26.5

Toberdoney tallied a score of 20

St Patrick’s scored a total of 20

St James’ tallied a score of 19