Killing 'Fields' as Broughshane sides suffer

BROUGHSHANE Playing Fields Association 'A's hopes of winning a first Ballymena and District League title since 2004 suffered a potentially catastrophic blow last week.

The Knockan Road side would have been one of a number of sides who would have fancied their chances of landing the title after Towers' demise on the eve of the season.

But Broughshane suffered a hammer blow last week as they suffered a whitewash defeat at the hands of Golf Club, who illustrated once again that if they can get their full team out on a regular basis, they will take points off other teams.

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In fairness, BPFA were in contention across all four rinks in a match which was switched to the Raceview venue.

The golfers were two points and six shots to the good by the interval thanks to Kevin McGarry's 11-9 win over David Morrison, while Johnny Lynn overcame Doran Turtle by four shots.

Any Broughshane hopes of gaining a foothold back in the game were quickly extinguished after the break when David McCullough overcame Ivan Craig by 10 shots to six.

And John Jamieson applied the gloss for the golfers with a 9-7 win over Alistair McCullough as the shell-shocked villagers made the short journey back out the Raceview Road empty-handed.

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It capped a miserable week for BPFA as, 24 hours earlier, their 'B' team suffered the same fate at the hands of a BUSC team who are looking strong contenders to mount a serious title bid.

Broughshane, as with so many teams promoted to the top flight, are finding the step up a huge one and they could only muster a paltry 12 shots across the four rinks.

Six of those came from Terry McClintock's foursome who were still 10 shots adrift of Richard Fleming at the end.

Across the other three rinks there was even less cheer as Social Club rinks skipped by Bryan Magrath, Andy Bonnar and James Gaston helped the Slemish Drive side to victory by a whopping 49 shots.

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In the other game, Michelin belatedly got their campaign up and running with a victory at Portglenone Community Centre - their first of the season after defeats in their opening two games.

Indeed, but for the efforts of Kevin O'Kane's rink, who secured half a point from an 8-8 tie with Wesley Caldwell, Michelin would have secured maximum points from their trip to the Bann.

Portglenone came close to adding to their tally with Joe McErlean losing to Grant Robinson by two shots, while Dermot McCann's rink came even closer against James McWhirter, losing out by a shot.

Where the scoreline got away from Portglenone was on Jim Gaul's rink, who lost by 19 shots to two to Graham Wilson, giving Michelin a slightly flattering overall scoreline.

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