Junior Park win one, lose one

BALLYMENA Junior Park also had two league games this week. On Tuesday night they entertained Hilden and the on Saturday they made the long trip to Owenbeg.

Ballymena Junior Park 89, Hilden 58: There was a close match on rink 1 as Tom Glass, Neal Garrett, Liam Lyness and Davy Balmer took on the Hilden rink skipped by I Harrison. Scores were level after 7 ends and again at 12 ends, but it was the Ballymena men who finished the stronger winning all but one of the remaining ends on their way to a 16-12 victory.

Clifford Duncan, Robert Mark, Derek Greer and Arnold Kenny could only manage to score 3 single shots against K McMullan over the opening 10 ends as the visitors opened up a 13-3 lead.

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The Ballymena rink however were able to reduce the arrears to 5 shots with 4 ends remaining, but two counts of 4 shots on the 15th and 17th ends in favour of the visitors saw the Hilden rink claim victory by 23 shots to 13.

There was an exciting finish to the game on rink 3 where Joe Kyle, Alan McCombe, Paul Davison and Billy Scullion took on R Campbell. Each rink scored a single shot over the first two ends, and ten ends later the scores were still tied at 12-12.

The visitors then won the next 2 ends with scores of 1 and 4, however the Ballymena men were not beaten and with scores of 3,2,1,1 over the remaining ends, it was the home rink who came off the green the happier having recorded a hard fought 19-17 victory.

If the game on rink 4 had been a boxing match, the referee would have stopped the contest well before the end as the Ballymena rink of Roy Kernohan, John McAnally, Tommy Hill and John Millar totally dominated their game against M McClean.

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After 5 ends the Braid men lead by 7 shots to 0, and over the next 6 ends they amassed a further 25 unanswered shots. The visitors did manage to win two ends late in the game but it could not stop the Ballymena rink from recording an emphatic 41-6 victory.

Ballymena Junior Park 52.75, Owenbeg 80: On rink 1 Clifford Duncan, Alan McCombe and Billy Scullion played with a player short against T Gibson.

The visitors played very well and lead by 10 shots after 18 ends, but they conceded 2counts of 4 shots on the remaining ends to leave the final score 23-19 in favour of Ballymena, however the visitors lost a quarter of their score as they had only 3 players so it left the Owenbeg victors by 19 shots to 17.25.

Tom Glass, Keith Burnett, Liam Lyness and Davy Balmer were behind for the most of their match against C Oakes.

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The home rink had their noses in front for 18 ends, but on the next end the Ballymena men took the lead for the first time. Unfortunately there was to be no fairytale ending as the Owenbeg rink won the last 2 ends to claim victory by 17 shots to 13.

Ballymena had only 3 players on rink 3. Jordan Millar, Robert Mark and John Millar played very steadily against the Owenbeg rink skipped by A Cuncliff and led by 10 shots at one stage.

The home rink hit back over the closing end, and by the time the 21 ends had been played the score was 16-13 in favour of the Ballymena men, but again they had to lose a quarter of their score so it was the Owenbeg rink who actually claimed the point by 13 shots to 12.

Artie McAuley, Gary Shaw and Robert McCready were another Ballymena rink made up of 3 players and they took on J Graham on rink 4. Scores were level at 6-6 after 6 ends, but the home rink had the better of the remaining ends to finish 31-10.5 ahead after the scores had been adjusted.

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This Saturday, Ballymena Junior Park host North Down in the second round of the Irish Bowling Association Junior Cup and then on Tuesday they have another home match in the NIPGL Junior Division 2 when Comber are the visitors.

SENIOR PARK

Ballymena Senior Park had no match this Saturday, however they are in Irish Cup action next Saturday when they make the long trip to CYM in Dublin and then it is back to league duties next Tuesday with another away match at Malone.

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