Ladies continue impressive start to new league campaign

The ladies of Ballymena Bowling Club and their guests pictured at the recent raising of the Provincial Towns League flag, marking the start of their new season. INBT 16-806H

On rink 2 Jennie McCready, Maree Houston, Sile Garvey and Barbara Cameron were in devastating form in their game against T McMillan.

The Coleraine ladies picked up a single on the first end however the visitors were soon in to their stride when they picked up a brace of 3’s to lead by 5. The home rink doubled their score on the next end but the Braid rink replied with a total of 11 unanswered shots over the next 7 ends to extend their advantage to 15 shots. Five ends later the margin was 17 shots but Cameron’s ladies were in no mood to ease off over the remaining 2 ends.

The Ballymena ladies picked up a near maximum count of 7 shots on the 17th end and a further 2 shots on the final end pushed them through the 30 shot barrier to give them an excellent 31-5 victory (adjusted to 31-3.75 as the Coleraine rink lost a quarter of their score as they could only field 3 players).

Eva Gage, Pat Allen, Jennifer Dowds and Donna McCloy were drawn against V Witherow on rink 3 and for the first part of the game there was little to separate the two rinks and with 11 ends completed the visitors lead by 11 shots to 10.

The Ballymena ladies however took control of the game when they scored a total of 8 shots over the next 4 ends to extend their advantage to 9 shots. Singles were shared over the 16th and 17th ends and two shots on the final end gave the Braid rink a well deserved 22-11 victory.

Barbara Burnett, Linda McCullough, Erin Smith and Sarah Jane Curran took on L Evans on rink 4. It took the visitors a few ends to settle down and with 6 ends completed the home rink had established a 3 shot lead. The game changed over the next 5 ends when the Ballymena ladies picked up 5 consecutive 2’s to turn a 3 shot deficit in to a 7 shot advantage.

The remainder of the game was evenly contested with the 2 rinks sharing 10 shots to leave the final score 21-14 in favour of the Braid rink. (adjusted to 21-10.75 as Coleraine lost a quarter of their score as they could only field 3 players).