Dunbarton A are league champions once again after three wins in a week

The Dunbarton A team are Private Greens Senior Division One champions for the second year in a row and for the 12th time in 17 seasons – a truly remarkable record!

Before 2006, the club had never won a Senior One title in it's 50 year history but suddenly once they started winning, they now cant stop! In that time the Senior Team also collected another 3 Irish Senior Cups and 6 Private Greens Senior Cups!

Last week the Gilford stars wrapped up the league in style, winning 3 games in 5 days to leave them with an unassailable 17.5 points lead with one game remaining. First up last Tuesday was a home clash with old rivals Ballymena.

Dunbarton A 84 (5.5pts) v Ballymena A 75 (1.5pts): This was the fourth time this season that these sides had met and with the three previous games having gone in favour of the away side, the Gilford men were determined to put this record straight. Earlier in the season, the Braidmen had knocked the locals out of the PG Senior Cup but since that surprise defeat, they had since won twice at Ballymena. Last Tuesday they made it three wins in a row in a closely contested game.

Despite a strong start by the hosts, the away side had squeezed their noses in front by the midpoint, leading by three shots, however this did not last long as the home side bounced back and led until the finish. By the close, the Gilford men registered a nine shot victory and overall a hard earned 5.5 pts.

Barry Browne's four started like a house on fire and never looked back. An early 10-0 lead after four ends got them off to a flyer and they eventually cruised home by 11 shots. Also victorious was Conor McCartan's foursome who actually trailed by eight shots at the two thirds mark before moving up the gears over the final seven ends. Helped by counts of 6 on end 16, 5 on end 19 and 4 on end 20 Conor's excellent rink stormed home by eight shots.

Jack A Moffett's four started very brightly and led 11-4 after six ends but this was as good as it got as a poor second half saw them slump to a disappointing 10 shot reverse. The real drama however came on rink two where Marty Trainor was skipping against Ballymena legend Jim Baker.

For the majority of the game the home rink were in complete control as by end 12 they held a large 16-6 advantage. Over the next eight ends things went a bit pear shaped for Marty's quartet culminating in the loss of an awful count of seven shots on the penultimate end and suddenly with one end remaining they trailed by four shots and looked to have pulled a defeat out of the jaws of victory. However on the last end, all four men in yellow and black produced some fine bowls and gave skip Marty a great chance for a count of four shots with his last bowl if he could remove the closest Ballymena bowl. Sure enough Marty duly obliged and the game finished tied after an incredible final two ends.

An excellent win for the Dunbarton Seniors.

Rink 1 J Kidd, J Magennis, M Greenfield, B Browne up 24-13

Rink 2 R McMullan, K Trainor, A O'Keefe, M Trainor 21-21

Rink 3 D Jordan, J Moffett, DJ Wilson, JA Moffett down 14-24

Rink 4 R McElroy, D McElroy, A Hughes, C McCartan up 25-17

Dunbarton A 103 (7pts) v Salisbury A 52 (0pts)

Two nights after their fine win at home to Ballymena, the Dunbarton lads followed this up with a superb 51 shot defeat of Salisbury in Gilford. This excellent home win made it nine wins from a possible nine games at home in the league and 58 points out of a possible 63.

On a rain swept Thursday night, the locals took control of this game early on and never looked back. It was Conor McCartan's rink that led the way with a stunning 27 shot success. Meanwhile Jack A Moffett's four bounced back from their defeat two nights earlier to cruise to an 11 shot victory.

Marty Trainor's men were made to fight hard and were just five up with six to play before once again finishing very strongly to win five of the last six ends and an excellent 11 shot win. Last but not least came Barry Browne's four who once again despite not playing their best bowls, fought doggedly. In a game that swung to and fro, it looked like the visitors were in pole position when on end 17 they scored a count of four to move ahead by three shots and then followed this up with a single the following end. However Barry's men never gave up and they finished with aplomb scoring 2,1,2, for a hard fought single shot success and the seventh and final point.

In horrible conditions, this was another tremendous team performance – a performance befitting of champions.

Rink 1 R McElroy, D McElroy, A Hughes, C McCartan up 33-6

Rink 2 R McMullan, K Trainor, A Paul, M Trainor up 27-16

Rink 3 J Kidd, J Magennis, M Greenfield, B Browne up 19-18

Rink 4 D Jordan, J Moffett, DJ Wilson, JA Moffett up 24-12

Ards A 66 (1.5pts) v Dunbarton A 86 (5.5pts)

Similarly to last season, the Dunbarton A team secured the Division One league title at Ards BC. Last season they needed five points to win the league in their final match of the season. This time just 2.5 points were required but they were made to fight hard by a determined Ards side. With just eight ends to play across three rinks, the visitors led by the narrow margin of just four shots before storming home by winning all eight final ends. Eventually the Gilford champions secured 5.5 points and won the game by 20 shots.

It was clear from the first two ends that the visitors had a battle on their hands as they were outscored 1-11! Jack A Moffett's excellent rink soon quickly settled the nerves with a count of six on end three and followed this up with a single, double and treble to surge ahead 12-3. And while they never looked back, the other three rinks did not have it their own way. Conor McCartan's four were put to the sword early on by an inform home rink and they trailed by 12 shots at the 12 end mark. Meanwhile Marty Trainor and Barry Browne both had a battle on their hands. Marty was behind by one shot at 15 ends, 12-13, while Barry was all square at 12 ends.

The first rink off the green was Jack A Moffett's and they produced an outstanding 17 shot victory. At this stage the visitors led by four shots. Barry Browne was next off and due to the loss of counts of four on ends 17 and 20, his point was gone going into the last end. He did though score a single to move the overall lead to five, despite a six-shot defeat.

On the final two rinks however, the visitors powered their team to victory. Marty Trainor was ahead by two shots with three to play but finished with scores of 2,4,1 for an excellent nine shot win. And last but not least came Conor McCartan's four who were behind throughout. They had trailed 9-20 after 14 ends but scores of 1,1,1,had left them eight behind with four ends to go. And over those final four ends, the Gilford four produced a number of quality bowls to win all four ends counting 3,3,1,1 for what looked like a very unlikely draw. A superb fighting performance by Conor's four and an extra half point achieved.

Overall with just eight ends remaining, the locals outscored the hosts 16-0 to wrap up the league title in style.

Rink 1 D Jordan, J Moffett, DJ Wilson, JA Moffett up 29-12

Rink 2 R McElroy, D McElroy, A Hughes, C McCartan 20-20

Rink 3 R McMullan, A O'Keefe, A Paul, M Trainor up 22-13

Rink 4 J Kidd, J Magennis, M Greenfield, B Browne down 15-21

This week the locals have their final league match of the season when they travel to Larne. They will be hoping to make it 17 wins from 18 matches which would be a phenomenal effort for the league season.