Highs and lows in mixed week of fortunes for Park Seniors

Ballymena Senior Park have been in decent form of late, however they crashed to a heavy defeat last Tuesday night when they made the long trip to Saintfield and they returned without a point to show for their endeavours.
John Montgomery lines up his shot for Ballymena Senior Parks team. INBT31-222ACJohn Montgomery lines up his shot for Ballymena Senior Parks team. INBT31-222AC
John Montgomery lines up his shot for Ballymena Senior Parks team. INBT31-222AC

On Saturday however they put in an excellent performance against Malone and on the day they were unlucky not to pick up a maximum 7 points and in the end they were glad to put Tuesday nights display behind them and settle for 6 points.

Ballymena Senior Park (29) Saintfield (97): John Montgomery, Stephen Roberts, Robert McCready and Jim Cameron took on T Ferris and for the first half the visitors held their own with the score board reading 7-6 in favour of the home rink after 10 ends. The game changed over the next 3 ends when the Saintfield men picked up 2 counts of 4 shots and from being only one shot down the Ballymena men found themselves 8 shots adrift with only 5 ends to play. Over the remainder of the game each rink scored 4 shots to leave the final score 19-11.

John Houston, Jimmy Gage, Derek Greer and Alex Wilson were drawn against J Alexander. Both teams won 4 of the first 8 ends however the home rink outscored the Braid men by 9 shots to 4 to take an early advantage. Unfortunately for the Ballymena rink they could only pick up another 3 singles over the remainder of the game and even though they restricted their opposition to singles and twos it was the Saintfield men who claimed victory by 20 shots to 7.

Roy Kernohan, Tommy Crooks, Paul Davidson and John Elliott dropped a count of 5 shots on the 3rd end in their encounter with G McMullan and with 6 ends completed the visitors trailed by 8 shots to 3. Over the next 5 ends the home rink doubled their tally while the Braid men could only score 2 singles to leave the score board reading 16-5. It did not get much better for the Ballymena rink over the remaining ends as the match finished 25-7 in favour of the home rink.

Keith Burnett, Leslie Jackson, Dessie and Gary Shaw never really settled to the conditions against R Copes and with only 5 ends played they trailed by 12 shots to 0. No matter how hard they tried, they could do nothing to stop the Saintfield men from taking total control of the game and it was not until the 13th end that the Braid men actually got on to the scoreboard when they picked up a single, however by this time the home rink had already amassed 25 shots. The visitors picked up another 3 shots on the 16th end but the home rink won the contest by 33 shots to 4.

Ballymena Senior Park (94) Malone (68): There was nothing to separate the Ballymena rink of Roy Kernohan, Alan Smyth, Jimmy Shields and John Elliott and the visiting rink skipped by D Nelson and with 8 ends played the scores were level at 7-7. Five ends later the home rink had opened up a slender 2 shot lead but the Braid men finished in style when they won all of the remaining ends to tie up an excellent 25-12 victory.

Andy Hill, Jimmy Gage, Robert McCready and Jim Cameron made a great start against F Thompson and with the help of a count of 5 shots on the 2nd end they raced in to a 12 shot lead after only 7 ends. The Braid men scored a second count of 5 shots on the 12th end and another 2 shots on the next end gave the Ballymena rink a 17 shot margin. The Malone men stopped the Braid charge when they won the next 5 ends to reduce the margin to 8 shots but over the remaining ends Cameron’s men extended their lead to 10 shots with the final score 27-17.

Keith Burnett, John Montgomery, Leslie Jackson and Gary Shaw started well against E Mairs and with 10 ends completed the Braid rink lead by 10 shots to 7. Six shots on the next end helped the home rink to extend their lead and with only 6 ends remaining victory was within their grasp as the gap between the two rinks had increased to 11 shots. Disaster struck Ballymena when they conceded a count of 7 shots on the 16th end. The rinks each scored a single over the next 2 ends but there was further trouble for the Braid rink as they lost three consecutive counts of 4 shots over the remaining ends to end up on the wrong end of a 29-21 score line.

John Houston, Bertie Thompson, Stephen Roberts and Alex Wilson lost a couple of singles over the first two ends in their game against T Monro. The Ballymena men fought back and some good steady bowling kept the Braid men in touch and a count of 4 shots on the 10th end gave them a 3 shot lead. The Ballymena rink dominated the second period of the game and although only another 14 shots were scored Wilson’s men outscored the Malone men by 11 shots to 3 to record a well deserved 21-10 victory.

Ballymena men entertain Shaftesbury next Tuesday night.

Related topics: