No home comfort for Ballymena players in Inter Association event

Ballymena, who play in the Northern Ireland Private Greens League (NIPGL), had no less that seven players included in the Northern Ireland Private Green squad.

On Friday Night the NIPGL got off to a good start when they defeated the Northern Ireland Bowling Association (NIBA) by 84 shots to 72.

On rink 1 Darrell Green (Old Bleach), Arron Sloan (Belmont Park), Simon Caven (Ballywalter) and Mark Torrington (Ballymena) took on D Jordan and were narrowly defeated by 18 shots to 17.

On rink 2 James Gaston (Ballymena), Arron Dilworth (Ulster Transport), Terry Crawford (Salisbury) and Paul Brennan (Falls) beat G McKee by 25 shots to 22.

On rink 3 David Torrington (Ballymena), Ian Harrison (Old Bleach), Chris McCall (Ulster Transport) and Andrew Duncan (Ballymena) drew with P McCafferty 17-17 and on rink 4 – Steven Shields (Ballymena), Mark Taggart (Downpatrick), Andrew Bonnar (Ballymena) and D J Dilworth (Ulster Transport) beat P Burns by 21 shots to 11.

In the other match the Northern Ireland Provincial Bowling Association (NIPBA) beat the Bowling League of Ireland (BLI) by 96 shots to 59.

On Saturday morning the NIPGL team were unchanged and they were drawn against the NIPBA, however it was the NIPBA who claimed victory by 84 shots to 72 – NIPGL scores first. D J Dilworth beat G Kelly 24-11, A Duncan drew with K Padgett 23-23, P Brennan lost to L Jacob 18-23 and M Torrington lost to S Colvin 34-8.

In the other match NIBA defeated BLI by 122 shots to 60.

The Saturday afternoon matches started with 3 teams still in with a chance of winning the series. This time the NIPGL made 3 changes to their team with Alistair Coleman (Ballymena), Gareth Caughey (Belmont) and Billy Gibson (Comber) coming in to replace David Torrington, Darrell Green and Arron Sloan.

Simon Caven also took over skipping duties from Mark Torrington moving to play third. The NIPGL took on the BLI in their final game and recorded a 72-65 victory – NIPGL scores first. D J Dilworth beat S Leonard 22-15, P Brennan beat T Smith 18-15, S Cavan lost to R Maher 15-19 and A Duncan beat M O’Looney. In the other match NIBA beat NIPBA by 81 shots to 66.

When all the points were added up 3 teams had each recorded 2 victories, but the series went to the NIBA (14.5 points) with NIPBA in second place (13.5 points) and NIPGL in third place (13 points) with BLI in fourth place (1 point).