Locals star for Irish under-25s

IRELAND hosted the recent Men's Under-25 Home International Championships which took place at the Provincial Towns Indoor Bowling Club, Ballymoney on 9th and 10th of January 2010.

Three Ballymena players, Andrew Duncan, Steven Shields and David Torrington were selected for the team.

The first round of matches took place on Saturday with Ireland taking on Scotland. Both teams had two rink wins; however it was Scotland who claimed victory by 109 shots to 73. In the other match England defeated Wales by 92 shots to 67.

The second round of matches took place on Saturday afternoon and this time England were Ireland’s opponents. England, with 2 rink wins and a draw took the match by 100 shots to 67 and in the other match Wales defeated Scotland by the narrowest of margins 83 shots to 82.

The final matches took place on Sunday morning with the Irish saving their best performance for the last game of the series. This time Wales were the opponents and the result of this match went down to the final end, however, even though Ireland had 2 rink wins and a draw, it was the Welsh who claimed victory by 81 shots to 79. In the other match England defeated Scotland by 80 shots to 67.

England won the Championships with 3 wins out of 3. Wales with 2 wins were runners-up. Scotland finished third and while Ireland came in 4th there were many positives which can be taken from the Irish performance.