Irish Junior Cup stays in Ballymena’s possession

Ballymena Juniors added another piece of silverware to the trophy cabinet on Saturday when they recorded a hard fought victory against Downpatrick to retain the Irish Junior Cup.
IBA President Ronnie Blaire presents the Junior Cup to Ballymena captain Ivan Lynn after his team's win over Downpatrick in the final of the IBA Junior Cup at Belmont. Picture: John McIlwaine/Press EyeIBA President Ronnie Blaire presents the Junior Cup to Ballymena captain Ivan Lynn after his team's win over Downpatrick in the final of the IBA Junior Cup at Belmont. Picture: John McIlwaine/Press Eye
IBA President Ronnie Blaire presents the Junior Cup to Ballymena captain Ivan Lynn after his team's win over Downpatrick in the final of the IBA Junior Cup at Belmont. Picture: John McIlwaine/Press Eye

The Braid men quickly established a good lead over the opening ends however with about 4 ends remaining the Downpatrick team hit the front.

The lead was short lived as the Braid men dug deep and they eventually went on to claim victory by a margin of 16 shots.

On rink 1 Leslie Barr, Tommy Hill, Danny McCullough and George Graham made the perfect start against M Smyth when they scored 3 shots on the first end and then a maximum count of 8 shots on the next end.

With 6 ends played the Braid men appeared to be well on their way to victory as they lead by 15 shots but they lost their way over the remainder of the game and 12 ends later the Downpatrick rink had levelled the game at 17-17. The momentum was now with Co Down men and they eventually went on to win by 21 shots to 18.

Alan McAuley, Arnold Kenny, Ivan Lynn and John Coulter had a close game with M Taggart on rink 2. Scores were level at 10-10 at 12 ends and 14-14 after 19 ends but the Braid men sealed a hard earned victory over the last 2 ends when they scored 2 singles to record victory by 16 shots to 14.

Five singles and a count of 5 shots on the 4th end gave Geoff Padgett, Joe McKeown, Jimmy Larkin and David Torrington a 6 shot lead over D McCann on rink 3 after 9 ends.

The direction of the game changed over the next 6 ends when the Downpatrick men scored 11 shots without reply and even though the Ballymena men had slightly the better of the remaining ends they came up just short with the final score 18-16.

The big winners on the day were John McFall, Neal Garrett, Michael Wilson and Roy Torrington who took on K McMullan on rink 4.

There wasn’t much in the game over the first 12 ends as the Ballymena men lead by 13 shots to 10 however the remainder of the game belonged almost exclusively to the Braid rink.

A count of 5 shots on the 16th end saw the Ballymena rink take a 12 shot lead and a further 8 shots over the last 4 ends gave the Braid men a match winning score line of 30 shots to 11.

Ballymena Juniors are next back in action on Tuesday night when they travel to Belmont in the NIPGL Junior League Division 1 and then on Saturday they entertain Ulster Transport.

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