Promotion favourites take tumble in week two

ANY thoughts that Moneyglass and JTI, both relegated from Division One last year, would coast to an immediate top-flight return were given a rude awakening in the second week of fixtures in Division Two.

Both sides, who had looked so impressive in their opening night victories, slumped to defeats with JTI’s home defeat again Maine a particularly surprising result.

That outcome didn’t look on the cards after JTI had claimed both first half points, albeit from narrow winning margins.

Brian Russell overcame Pat O’Neill by three shots, while only one shot separated Len McIlroy’s JTI rink from Brian Kerr.

But the Randalstown side turned the game on its head after the tea-break when, firstly, Laurence McQuillan inflicted a rare home defeat on Timothy Rock, by an impressive margin of 12-4.

That laid the foundation for Patsy Kerr to go on and complete a superb Maine victory with a 7-5 success over Billy Lynn.

Moneyglass came unstuck at Clough Rangers where the 49-26 scoreline doesn’t tell the true story of an unusual game.

Tommy Quinn and Tommy Magee both ‘pointed’ for MG but their three shot winning margins against Dennis McClurkin and William Patton had little impact as both Clough rink wins were by crushing margins.

Alan Armstrong’s four had a 16-5 triumph over Brendan McCusker, while Raymond Aitcheson’s rink cantered to a 21-3 romp against Henry Marron.

Dunclug PTA crashed to defeat at Harryville Community Centre leaving both teams with a won one, lost one record from their opening two games.

The match was all over bar the shouting by the interval, by which stage Harryville had amassed a 33-8 cushion.

WIlson Burgess started the ball rolling with a 19-6 success over Noel Clarke, ably backed up by Harold Smyth’s 14-2 win at the expense of George Davidson.

Chris Ramsey’s rink did their best to haul Dunclug back into the contest as they chalked 10 shots off Harryville’s lead by beating Stewart Wilson 13-3 but it was the school team’s only success as, at the same time, Bertie McBride’s rink saw off Alan Heron by the tune of 12 shots to three.

Services ‘A’, who had a bye in week one, announced their belated arrival on the scene with a five-point haul at the expense of West Church, who, despite having pooled the resources of their ‘B’ and ‘A’ teams into one team this season, have found the early going tough, taking just one point from their opening two games.

They were never really in this match in the Craig Hall, where Services took a firm grip in the first half with rinks skipped by Mark Shaw and David Balmer building up an 11-shot lead at half-time.

And the church team’s fortunes didn’t improve in the second half as Billy Scullion thumped Maurice Livingstone 20-4, although Tommy Wilson’s West rink put up a good fight before eventually going down 12-10 to Bill Kitson.

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