Seniors double up on victories

The first was a home match with Larne on a bitterly cold Tuesday night and this was followed by a trip to Belmont Park on Saturday.

Ballymena 96, Larne 56: On rink 2 Steven Shields, Graham Wilson, Andrew Morrison and Nigel Robinson took on the Larne rink skipped by D McRandal and the Ballymena men gave the visitors a torrid time over the first 12 ends of the game as they raced in to a 19-2 lead. The remainder of the game was closer, with the home rink coasting to a very comfortable 27-11 victory.

David Torrington, Andrew Bonnar, Andrew Duncan and Jim Baker found themselves level at 5-5 after 5 ends against G Johnston, however the Braid rink won the next 6 ends to open up a 17-5 lead. Again the remainder of the game was much more even with Baker's men eventually winning by 23 shots to 13.

David Duncan, Mark Torrington, Jonathan Millar and Sammy Allen were never in any danger against P Robinson.

The Ballymena men were in great form winning the first 5 ends to lead by 8 shots to 0. This was still the margin after 17 ends and 3 scores of 2 shots over the remaining ends saw the Ballymena men home by 25 shots to 12.

The closest game of the night was on rink 1 where Steven Falls, JR Nicholl, Andrew Kyle and Steven Coleman were drawn against S Bell. The Larne men made the better start as they opened up a 6 shot lead after only 4 ends, however by the eighth end the Ballymena men were back in the game with the score 7-7 and the scores were still level with 2 ends remaining.

The Larne rink then scored 2 shots on the penultimate end but unfortunately for the home rink, they could only claim a single shot on the final end to go down by 20 shots to 19.

Ballymena 80, Belmont Park 60: The Belmont rink skipped by A Sloan took an early 5 shot lead against David Torrington, Andrew Bonnar, Andrew Duncan and Jim Baker.

However the visitors dominated the middle of the game to open up a 10 shot advantage after 15 ends. The home rink hit back over the remaining ends but the Braid men held on for a 18-17 victory.

David Duncan, Mark Torrington, Jonathan Millar and Sammy Allen never really settled down against B Higgins and after 13 ends they trailed by 15 shots, however they found some form over the closing ends to reduce the deficit to 7 shots with the score reading 24-17 in favour of the home rink.

The big winners of the day where Steven Falls, JR Nicholl, Andrew Kyle and Steven Coleman who opened up a 15-1 lead after only 6 ends. The Belmont men did recover a little during the middle part of the game, but on the day the home rink were no match for Coleman's men as they went on to record an excellent 29-14 victory.

On rink 4 Steven Shields, Graham Wilson, Andrew Morrison and Nigel Robinson were involved in a real battle against W Thompson. This was a really close match with never any more than 4 shots in the game, but it was the Ballymena men who held their nerve to record a 16-13 victory.

This Saturday is the second round of the Irish Bowling Association Senior Cup and Ballymena Seniors have an interesting home tie against NICS who inflicted an opening day league defeat on the Braid men and then next Tuesday night it is back to the League campaign with a home match against local rivals Old Bleach.