Ardglass shine in the Veterans Cup as poor run keeps on going

Fair enough, they reached the semi-final in 2008 and 2011 but were knocked out in round one in 2009, 2010, 2012 and again in 2013.

Their first round opponents this season were Ardglass and, as reported earlier, they lost the away leg by 3.5 points to a half.

The second leg was played at Banbridge last Wednesday. Banbridge, to be certain of victory, needed to win all four games and, at one stage, they looked odds-on to do just that.

Peter Hillen and Brian Mulholland went out first and they were both really on top form. They won 5 and 4 and were 8 holes up at the finish. The “holes up” advantage was now with Banbridge.

In game number two, Bobby Geddis and Sydney Pepper combined nicely to win by twoholes up.

Dennis Lockhart and John Redpath battled bravely to get a half match in game three. That was ok because, if Banbridge could win the last game, they would win the fixture by holes up.

Seamus McGrath and John Poots started nervously and found themselves three down after five holes. All credit to them, they fought back brilliantly to be one up after 11 holes.

But unfortunately, they couldn’t hold onto that lead. All square going int the last four holes, John and Seamus lost 15 and 16 and that was that. The Banbridge team had given it their best shot but it just wasn’t quite good enough. Ardglass progress to the quarterfinal thanks to a 5-3 victory. We wish them well.