Juniors’ Irish Cup reign comes to disappointing conclusion

This was a lack lustre performance from the Braid men with only young Chris Wilson’s rink putting up any sort of resistance but it was Limavady team who won well on 3 rinks to win by a margin of 34 shots

Ballymena Juniors (65) Limavady (99)

Leslie Barr, Tommy Hill, Danny McCullough and George Graham took on W Moore on rink 1.

The Braid men could only win 1 of the first 7 ends to trail by 6 shots, however 2 ends later they had reduced the arrears to only a single shot. Three ends later the margin was still only a single shot but the Limavady rink outscored the Ballymena men by 13 shots to 2 over the next 7 ends to take control of the game and in the end they went on to win by 26 shots to 16.

On rink 2 Geoff Padgett, Jimmy Larkin, Ivan Lynn and Chris Wilson started slowly against R Service and after 5 ends the Ballymena rink trailed by 5 shots to 9.

The Braid rink steadied the ship and 9 unanswered shots over the next 6 ends gave Wilson’s men a 5 shot lead. The Ballymena men were playing the better bowls and with 16 ends played they had doubled their advantage to 10 shots. The next 5 ends were close but the Braid men were well worth their 20-11 victory.

Artie McAuley, Norman Armstrong, Nigel McFadden and John Coulter found it tough going against S Corrscadden on rink 3 and when the Limavady rink picked up 4 shots on the first end it set the tone for the afternoon. The Braid men could only win 3 of the first 10 ends and at this stage of the contest the Limavady lead by 14 shots to 5.

The second half of the game mirrored that of the first half. The Limavady rink continued to set the pace and the Braid men could only win 3 of the remaining ends to leave the final score 28-11

On rink 4 John McFall, Neal Garrett, Alan McAuley and Roy Torrington were drawn against V Hunter. A total of 24 shots were shared by the 2 rinks over the first 9 ends and the Ballymena men were still very much in the game.

That was as good as it got for the Braid rink and over the next 7 ends the Limavady rink racked up a total of 16 shots without reply and by the time the game had concluded the margin was still 16 shots with the Limavady rink claiming victory by 34 shots to 18.

Next week Ballymena Juniors travel to Dunbarton on Tuesday night and on Saturday they entertain Ulster Transport. Ballymena Juniors are also in the race for the NIPGL Junior League Division 1. They lie in 3rd place, 6 points behind league leaders Pickie and 4.5 points behind Dunbarton but they have one game in hand.