Ladies back to winning ways

Jean Rainey, Barbara Burnett, Pat Allen and Jennifer Dowds were involved in a very close game against M Rodgers on rink 1 with each team winning 9 ends. A count of 4 shots on the 7th end gave the home rink a slight edge for a while, but with 4 ends to go the teams were level at 11-11.

Unfortunately for the Ballymena ladies they could only win one further end and in the end it was the Magherafelt ladies who claimed victory by 16 shots to 13.

In a low scoring game on rink 2 it was the visiting rink of Jennie McCready, Marie Houston, Iris Millar and Barbara Cameron who made the better start against V Wilson when they won 7 of the first 11 ends to open up a 5 shot lead.

The Ballymena rink however could only win 2 more ends as the home rink came back to snatch victory by a single shot with the score reading 13-12 in favour of the Magherafelt ladies.

The 3 Ballymena Under 25’s ladies, Megan Wilson, Erin Smith and Sarah Jane Coleman who had returned from international duty the previous day were joined by the ladies President, Peggy Pinkerton on rink 3 where were drawn against T McGuigan.

The Ballymena rink were in great form and dominated the match from start to finish, winning 12 of the regulation 18 ends on their way to a fine 16-7 victory.

Unfortunately due to unavailability of players, Ballymena could only field 3 players on rink 4 and so Gladys Power, Dorothy McKee and Sile Garvey took to the green to play M McCart knowing that they would lose a quarter of their score at the end of the game.

It didn’t look good for the Braid ladies when after only 4 ends they found themselves 10-0 down, but the visitors settled down and a count of 5 shots on the 13th ends saw them take the lead for the first time by 3 shots.

The Ballymena ladies were able to keep their noses in front until the end to record a 21-19 victory, however once the scores had been adjusted it was the Magherafelt who were awarded victory by 19 shots to 14.75.

LADIES ‘B’

Ballymena Ladies ‘B’ played two matches recently and while both matches were close, both ended in defeat. In their first match they travelled to Kilrea and while both of the teams had a rink win it was Kilrea who claimed the overall victory. In the other match both of the Ballymena rinks suffered narrow defeats.

Ballymena Ladies ‘B’ 29, Kilrea 37: On rink 3 Eileen Courtney, Dymphna McKavanagh and Jean Lynn took on the Kilrea triple skipped by B Holmes.

The Ballymena ladies found the going tough and at the half way stage of the game they trailed by 7 shots. Unfortunately things did not get any better for the visitors as they could only score on 2 more of the remaining ends as the home rink went on to record a 26-9 victory.

There was better news on rink 4 where Barbara Burnett, Jackie Hogg and Sally Carson took on P Scott. The visitors were in great form and they won 9 of the first 11 ends to open up a 14 shot lead. The home rink came more in to the game over the remainder of the match, but it could not stop the Braid ladies from claiming victory by 20 shots to 11.

Ballymena Ladies ‘B’ 28, Kilrea 35: Eileen Courtney, Elise McAlonan and Gwen McAuley were drawn against M Sherrard on rink 2.

The scores were tied at 8-8 after 9 ends but the game changed on the next end when the visitors scored a count of 4 shots and the Ballymena ladies never really recovered from this set back eventually going down by 17 shots to 15.

On rink 3 Sally Carson, Jackie Hogg and Jean Lynn took on D Weeks. The first part of this game was quite close and after 10 ends the Braid ladies only trailed by a single shot.

Eight unanswered shots over the next 5 ends saw the visitors take control of the game and it was the Portrush ladies who went on to record victory by 18 shots to 13.