Eaton Park last remaining third division side in League Cup

The rugby club saw off fellow third tier side Round Tower to book a last eight meeting with neighbours Golf Club.

Guarding a fairly precarious six shot lead going into the second leg in Antrim, Eaton Park started strongly and had increased their advantage by a further 16 shots, thanks to wins from Bonar Hill and John Carruthers.

Michael Teer’s rink briefly revived Round Tower’s hopes of victory but George Reid’s rink guided Eaton Park into the quarter-finals by an overall margin of 16 shots.

Portglenone Community Centre completed an overall win over first division JTI after taking a narrow lead into the second leg in Clady.

Had it been a league match, the two teams would have been unable to be separated, with each scoring 38 shots on the night, but JTI’s 10-shot handicap advantage proved all important.

To illustrate how closely-contested the tie was, two of the rinks finished all square with the matches between Kevin O’Kane and Timothy Rock and Roy Hunter’s meeting with Graham Maybin finishing eight shots apiece.

Len McIlroy’s two shot win for JTI was cancelled out by Joe McErlean’s win for the Bannsiders by the same margin.

They are joined in the quarter-finals by fellow second division sides Harryville Community Centre and BPFA ‘B’.

Harryville were 30 shot winners over two legs against West Church - no mean feat given that they were giving up 20 shots on handicap over those two games.

Tommy Wilson and Robert Peacock’s rinks shared 14 shots but thereafter it was a tale of Harryville domination with rink wins by Gary Worthington, Joe Patterson and Willard Reid.

Harryville now play BPFA ‘B’ who ended Antrim Indoor Bowling Club’s interest in the competition by a 30-shot winning margin.

Already in front from the first leg at the Jim Baker Stadium, Broughshane were in no mood to take their foot off the pedal.

BPFA’s winning rinks - skipped by George Davidson, Adi Davison and Noel Graham - all scored 13 shots, which certainly proved unlucky for Antrim, who could only muster a win by the rink skipped by Tom Evans in response.

Broughshane’s ‘A’ team clubmates are also in the last eight after eliminating Golf Seniors by 21 shots overall.

The Knockan Road won all four rinks thanks to successes for Alan Cahoon, Ivan Craig, Alistair McCullough and Richard Rodgers.

That sets up a mouth-watering quarter-final clash with Michelin - whose opponents Glenravel had withdrawn after the first leg - in an eagerly-awaited tussle between the two dominant forces in the league in recent seasons.

The last eight line-up is completed by BIBC who lost by two shots on the night at All Saints but still went through by 10 shots overall.