Seniors back in title hunt

LAST Tuesday night saw Ballymena Seniors entertain local rivals Old Bleach in the NIPGL Senior Division 1 League and while it was still early in the season there was certainly a lot to play for.

Ballymena Seniors had lost their first league game of the season to NICS and a second defeat at this stage of the season would almost certainly have meant that the league title would be out of their reach. On the other hand Old Bleach came in to the match, leading the NIPGL Senior Division 1 League and boasting an unbeaten start to the season.

Three of the rink scores were close, but Ballymena had one big rink win to claim a 94-75 victory and put the Braid men back in contention for the title.

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David Torrington, Andrew Bonnar, Andrew Duncan and Jim Baker trailed by 5 shots to 4 after 7 ends in their game against Neil Booth on rink 1, however 7 shots scored over the next 2 ends left the Braid men with a 6 shot cushion.

The visitors gradually got back in to the game and by the nineteenth end it was the Old Bleach rink who lead by 3 shots but 3 shots scored over the final ends meant that the final scores were tied at 17-17.

The big rink win of the night came on rink 2 where Steven Shields, Graham Wilson, Andrew Morrison and Nigel Robinson were drawn against Sammy Hall. The visitors scored 3 shots on the opening end, but it would be the 14th end before they could manage to score again and by this time the Ballymena men had scored a total of 21 shots with the Braid skip in particular playing some excellent conversion shots.

Robinson's rink then won the next 4 ends to lead by 28 shots to 6 and while the visitors claimed the last 3 ends it could not take the gloss off an excellent rink performance with the final score reading 28 shots to 11.

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There was a real battle on rink 3 where Steven Falls, JR Nicholl, Andrew Kyle and Steven Coleman took on the Old Bleach rink skipped by Michael Nutt.

This was a very close game with the lead changing on several occasions. On the 18th end the visitors scored a count of 5 shots to take a 6 shot lead, however the Ballymena rink hit back scoring a single and a count of 5 shots of their own to level the match at 24-24 with only one end remaining.

Twice the visitors lay shot only for the Braid 'back end' to burn the end, but it was third time lucky for Nutt's rink, who finally claimed the shot and the point by a single shot.

Jonathan Millar, James Gaston, Mark Torrington and Sammy Allen made a great start against James Talbot on rink 4 and after 7 ends they led by 19 shots to 2 however the visitors hit back to win 9 of the next 10 ends and reduce the deficit to only 2 shots. A count of 3 shots on the eighteenth end steadied the Ballymena nerves and eventually the Braid men came off the rink with a hard fought 25-22 victory.

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Ballymena Seniors' next league game is away at Ulster Transport this Saturday.

JUNIORS

Ballymena Juniors made the short trip to Old Bleach last Tuesday night in the NIPGL Junior League Division 1. They put in an excellent performance claiming all 7 points on offer to leap in to second place in the league behind Dunbarton.

On Saturday Ballymena Juniors entertain Ulster Transport in the league.

Ballymena Juniors were also due to travel to Castleton in the first round of the NIPGL Junior Cup last Thursday, however Castleton were unable to field a team and so the Braid men are through to the second round where they have been rewarded with a home tie against Belmont.

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