Bragging rights for veterans teams 1 and 3

Ballymena Vets 1 and Ballymena Vets 2 play in the Veterans Bowling League Zone A Section A1 and Ballymena Vets 3 and Ballymena Vets 4 play in the Veterans Bowling League Zone A, Section A2 and this means that every season there are two occasions when Ballymena teams are drawn against each other.

This happened last Monday with Ballymena Vets 1 scoring a narrow victory over Ballymena Vets 2 while Ballymena Vets 3 comfortably beat Ballymena Vets 4

Ballymena Veterans I 36, Ballymena Vets II 30: On rink 3 Jimmy Shields, Alan O’Loan, Sammy Watson and David Balmer (Ballymena Vets 1) took on Gary Shaw, Robert McCready, Wilfie Stewart and Harold Smyth (Ballymena Vets 2).

Ballymena Vets 2 made the better start and after 8 ends they had established a 4 shot lead. The game turned in favour of Ballymena Vets 1 over the next 3 ends as Balmer’s men scored counts of 5,3 and 4 to open up an 8 shot lead and this was still the margin when both rinks walked off the green with Ballymena Vets 1 scoring a 22-14 victory.

The Ballymena Vets 1 rink of Leslie Jackson, Sammy Small, Dessie Shaw and John Millar were not having things their own way on rink 4 where they played the Ballymena Vets 2 rink of Liam Lyness, Derek Greer, Peter Millar and Arnold Kenny. A count of 4 shots on the fourth end saw Ballymena Vets 1 take an early lead and after 14 ends they still held a 5 shot lead. The remainder of the game however belonged to Kenny’s men who won the last four ends to steal victory by 16 shots to 14.

Ballymena Veterans III 45, Ballymena Veterans IV 17: The Ballymena Vets 3 rink of Jimmy Alexander, Bill Wood, Lyle McQuitty and Don McKee were drawn against the Ballymena Vets 4 rink of Eddie Leckey, Clifford Duncan, Joe McKernan and Jackie Barr on rink 1.

Singles were shared over the first 2 ends, however a count of 5 shots to the Ballymena Vets 3 rink saw them take charge of the match.

On the sixth end Ballymena Vets 4 scored 3 shots to leave the score reading 8-4 in favour of Ballymena Vets 3, however it would be another ten ends before they could score again and by this time Ballymena Vets 3 were out of sight leading by 25 shots to 4. Both rinks won one of the remaining ends with the final score reading 26-6 in favour of Ballymena Vets 3.

On Rink 2 Joe Kyle, Bill Wood, Tommy Crooks and Billy Scullion (Ballymena Vets 3) lead for the whole of their game against Sammy Rainey, Jimmy Maybin, Roy Kernohan and Jim Cameron (Ballymena Vets 4). There was never much in this match with only four shots separating the two rinks at the half way stage of the game.

The decisive period of the match was during the twelfth and fifteenth ends when Ballymena Vets 3 outscored Ballymena Vets 4 by 6 shots to lead by 11 shots. Ballymena Vets 4 did manage to lift a count of 5 shots on the penultimate end to bring the scores closer, however it could not stop the Ballymena Vets 3 rink from recording a 19-11 victory.

Next week, local rivalry will be put aside as Ballymena Vets 1 host Glengormley, Ballymena Vets 2 visit Carrickfergus, Ballymena Vets 3 travel to Glengormley 2 and Ballymena Vets 4 entertain Carrickfergus 2.