Champions make confident start to title defence

Willie Dobbin’s side beat 147 Pistols on opening night with wins for Willie Dobbin, David McClintock and Rory Kinney.

Davy Swann was in a good position in the deciding frame of his match with Jordan Brown only for the Antrim man to produce a 73 clearance to take the frame and deny Minnesota B a maximum four points in the first match of the new season.

Minnesota Strikers ended a winless streak stretching back to last November as they saw off Minnesota Rockets by a 3-1 scoreline.

Bill McKane, Robin Shirley and Hugh Larkin were the winning players for the Strikers with Rodney McFall gaining the lone point for the Rockets.

In the newly named Potters club in Coleraine the home side Potters Hotshots came unstuck against the visiting Dunloy United side.

Stephen McIlroy got the home team off to a good start with a win over Cathaoir Cunning but that was as good as it got for Willie Eakins team.

The ever consistant Martin Crawley drew the visitors level and then Bobby Darragh and Miceal Murphy won their games to get the North Antrim team’s season off to a great start.

In Division 2 Parochial Hawks began their campaign with a hard earned 3-1 success over the visiting Allstars team.

The Allstars were a last minute entry into the Division 2 and had a bit of difficulty raising a team for the opener at short notice.

Allstars captain Sammy Walker had a mixed night having been drawn to play twice.

He lost to Hawks captain Danny McGarry before salvaging the Allstars first point of the season with a win over Pat McNally.

Niall McElroy and Simon Black were the other Hawks winners.

In Antrim the host 147 club had a tremendous battle with the visiting Potters Elite team before emerging on the right end of a 3-1 scoreline.

Every game went to a deciding frame with Robin McCaughey, Mervyn Campbell and Ian Templeton recording victories for 147 Antrim. Curtis Boreland a promising young player from the Potters club gained the point for his side.

The only match in either Division to end in a draw was played out in the new Dunloy clubrooms as the host Cowboys and the visiting Parochial Lions shared the spoils.

Aidan McErlaine was forced to play twice for Dunloy and he defeated Richard Russell before losing to James Millar.

Dennis Curran gained the Lions’ other point with Randal McDonnell edging out Gregory Bryans in a deciding frame to level the match score at 2-2.