Ports pipped to Division Two title

Just half-a-point separated newly-crowned champions BPFA 'A' and Portglenone Community Centre at the end of a thrilling Division Two campaign.

With Broughshane having completed their programme the previous week, they could only sit and wait for the results from Portglenone, hoping that the Bannsiders failed to take maximum points against Services 'A'.

When a call was made at the interval of that match, the news was good for Broughshane as Services had taken a point in the first half, thanks to Bill Kitson's convincing 14-2 win over Kevin O'Kane - an outcome which guaranteed BPFA 'A' the title.

It maybe wasn't the fixture that Portglenone would have hand-picked, against a Services side battling for places in the team for this week's League Cup final clash with BUSC, but the other three Portglenone rinks all played their part in an ultimately fruitless bid.

Declan McCann, Joe McErlean and Jim Gaul were the winning skips, against Mark Shaw, Pauline Wilson and George Bettie respectively.

There was more frantic activity at the bottom end of the table, where a late burst of form from Maine saw them escape from the bottom two positions for virtually the first time all season.

They were involved in an unusual occurrence where, despite winning three of the four rinks, they didn't also claim the point for overall shots total.

That was entirely down to Bertie McBride's rink's 19-3 win over Mary Dobbin, which clinched a 37-36 win for Harryville CC.

Maine's winning rinks were skipped by Matt O'Neill, Patsy O'Neill and Brian Kerr, who beat Wilson Burgess, Jimmy Patterson and Stewart Wilson.

That meant a four-point haul for Golf Seniors against West Church 'A' wasn't enough to prevent them from slipping into the bottom two.

Ivan McMaster and Campbell Wade put the Raceview team in command with first half wins over Tom Wilson and Michael Wilson.

Donald Smyth extended the golfers' advantage by beating Jim Rainey, but Graham Wilson secured a consolation point for West Church by beating Bertie Montgomery.

Clough Rangers forfeited their match against Enkalon, but the five points still weren't enough to prevent the Antrim side from finishing bottom of the table.