Portglenone edged out by one shot

Across the green their was little between the sides with the ports ahead 19-15 after 5 ends, all square at 39-39 with 10 played and a 5 shot margin in favour of the visitors after 15 with a scoreline of 58-63.

With the match completed it was the city men who finished on top with a 1 shot (79-80) win, however the scoreline did not reflect the true picture of the afternoon's play as the home side had comfortable wins on 3 of the 4 rinks but unfortunately an afternoon to quickly forget on the other.

On rink 1 Adam Hunter, Jonathan Reid, Jim Gaul and Keith Padgett had a torrid afternoon against City of Derry new boy A Whisker whose name was not an indication of the final score on this rink as he skated to a 5-39 victory.

A 2 for Keith on the first end proved to be a false dawn as the City rink restricted him to only 3 singles during the rest of the game.

Rink 2 saw Tommy McCart, Kieran Adams, Peter McCann and Eamon McCann play Lorenzo Graham.

It was the home quartet who had the early initiative, taking a 6 shot lead after 5 ends but after an exchange of shots over the next 11 ends the margin was still 6 in favour of Eamon at 19-13.

A 3,1,3 for the loss of 2 singles gave the home rink a 26-15 win.

Malcolm Thompson was the opposing skip on rink 3 against Patsy Boorman, Frank Jackson, Aaron Foster and Roy Hunter.

Roy strolled - strolled being the operative word as they still had 4 ends to play when everyone else were having their tea! - into a 12-0 lead with 7 ends played and 3 singles for Malcolm were responded to with a 4,4,1 by Roy to lead 21-3 with 13 completed.

The visitors again fought back but a final 3,2 flourish gave Roy an emphatic 28-9 win. As this rink was last to finish, there was great interest in the last 2 ends with 6 shots in the overall score.

A 3 in the 20th end reduced the arrears to 3 and when Roy's third Aaron Foster ditched the jack with his second bowl the difference was 2. Roy played an excellent first bowl to remove the opposition's closest bowl and stay in its place.

Despite Malcolm's best efforts Roy had the final bowl of the evening and came within inches of snatching a draw in the overall score.

On rink 4 Mark Pearson, Stephen Young, Geoff Padgett and Chris Jones found themselves 0-8 behind after 4 ends against John Louden but a 2,4,1,1 sequence levelled proceedings at 8-8.

There was little to choose between the rinks over the next 9 ends with John holding a 14-16 lead with 17 played. A dogged finish by Chris saw him record a 20-17 victory.

Portglenone have a home draw in the Irish Senior Cup this Saturday when Donaghadee are the visitors.