Ports suffer weekend defeat after midweek bonus

It was the home side who were quickest away from the starting flag, racing into a 17 shot lead after 5 ends at 27-10, however the visitors steadied and a close contest ensued during ends 6 to 18 with the Lodge Road men edging just 4 shots further ahead to lead 73-52. A sprint to the finishing line saw Coleraine dramatically increase their advantage to win by 37 shots (97-60).

On rink 1 it was a Mervyn Mc Keeman inspired rink who had a comfortable win over Patsy Boorman, Frank Jackson, Kieran Adams and Roy Hunter. Mervyn had established a 13-1 lead with 7 ends played and went on to win 27-8.

Rink 2 saw David Murray, Stephen Young, Geoff Padgett and Chris Jones play Victor Dalles who had Stephen Brewster at third. An opening single by Victor was followed by a 2 by Chris, however a 2,2,1,1,1,2,2,1,3 sequence by the home rink gave the visitors a mountain to climb with the score at 16-2 after 11 ends.

Over ends 10 to 19 the shots were evenly shared leaving a with a 21-7 scoreline and a 4 for Chris on the 20th end was answered by a 7 on the last by Victor to give him an emphatic 28-11 win.

It was the home rink skipped by Richard Mc Dermott who were quickest off the mark on rink 3 against Adam Hunter, Mark Pearson, Peter Mc Cann and Eamon Mc Cann. 4-1 ahead after 4 ends Richard extended his lead to 12-5 with 13 played but a spirited fightback by Eamon scoring a 3,2,2,1 put him 1 in front at 12-13 after 18 ends.

Alas this completed the scoring for the visitors as Richard won the remaining 4 ends including a maximum on the 20th to record a 24-13 victory.

Thanks to Andrew Millar, Mark Jones, Jim Gaul and Keith Padgett who secured a good win for Portglenone against Johnny Calvin on rink 4. Keith was 8-5 behind after 5 ends but a 4,4,1.2,3,sequence for the loss of a 2 put him 10-19 in front with 11 ends played. Play was fairly even for the remainder of the game with Keith claiming a well deserved 18-27 victory.

Following an excellent victory against Donaghadee in the first round of the Irish Senior cup Portglenone will now travel to Musgrave Park this Saturday for a second round tie.

There had been better fortune for Portglenone during the week when they had taken the lion’s share of the points (4.5) after a 78-78 tie with league leaders Dunluce.

On Rink 2 David Murray, Stephen Young, Geoff Padgett and Chris Jones took on Brian Smyth’. This was David Murray’s debut in the Senior team and he turned in an excellent performance particularly over the last few ends. Chris got off to a steady start scoring singles on the first 3 ends, however, a 6 in the fourth end stunned Chris’s rink and the momentum swung the way of the visitors with the Dunluce rink opening up an 8 shot lead after 13 ends.

A 4, 2, 2, 3 sequence brought Chris back into the game and with two ends left to play he only trailed by 2 shots. A 1, 4, finish sealed a 24-21 victory and a very valuable point for the home side.

On Rink 3 Mark Jones, Brian Jones, Jim Gaul and Keith Padgett took on Barry Kane. Keith’s rink were under pressure from the off and quickly found themselves 8 shots behind at the halfway mark (5-13).

During the second half of the match, Keith rallied his foursome and actually shared the spoils scoring 9 shots each. However, the visitors wrapped up a comfortable 14-22 win.

On Rink 4 Patsy Boorman, Frank Jackson, Aaron Foster and Roy Hunter were drawn against Uel McKeeman. This was a tight affair throughout the entire game with tit-for-tat scoring leaving the scores tied at 10-10 after 12 ends.

It looked like Roy’s boys were going to pull away with a 2, 3, 2 sequence putting Roy 17-10 ahead. However, a run of scoring over the next four ends saw McKeeman level the game at 17-17 with two ends to play. Again, Roy’s rink were last on the green and needed to win the last two ends to at least level the overall score. A superb last bowl of the match from Roy was enough to give him a 19-17 win and tie the overall.

On Rink 6 Adam Hunter, Tommy McCart, Peter McCann and Eamon McCann played Rodney Kane’s foursome. It was the visitors who had the better of the opening exchanges and surged into a 10 shot lead after four ends.

This only served to spur Eamon’s rink into action and a 3, 4, 1, 3, 3, 1, 1, 2, 1 sequence for the loss of two shots put Eamon into a 19-12 lead. Back came Kane’s rink winning the next four ends in a row. However, it proved to be too little, too late and Eamon completed an impressive 21-18 win.