Lurgan A 90 (6) Whitehead B 67 (1) Last Saturday Lurgan A consolidated their position at the top of the NIBA Stairlift Solutions Division 2 with a convincing 23-shot home win over Whitehead B.

Their nearest rivals are 10 points behind with two matches left. Although Newcastle on 67 points are still very much in the running with a match in hand which will be played on Tuesday night at Markethill.

On Rink 1 Ronan Cregan and his rink, up against Brian Connor, once again got off to a slow start. However, with some great front end bowling from Richard McClune and Peter Dew, the Lurgan rink started to rack up the shots and eventually ran out 20-13 winners.

John Gilliland’s rink looking to recover from last week’s defeat was up against Jonathan Crooks on Rink 2. The Lurgan boys were in total control of the match from start to finish and secured a point with a 24-16 victory.

Sam McCombes, Lurgan A Skip consulting with his team while Luke Donaldson checks the rink scores

placeholder image — Sam McCombes, Lurgan A Skip consulting with his team while Luke Donaldson checks the rink scores

Sam McCombes faced Keith Walker on Rink 3 and produced the performance of the day. The home four led from start to finish and earned a well-deserved 12-shot win and a 27-15 finish

Over on the end rink Alan Roberts was against James Burns Snr who is probably Whitehead’s strongest skip. At 15 ends it looked all over for the Lurgan Four as they trailed 11-19. However, a brilliant count of 6 on the 16th end brought them back into it. Unfortunately, over the last 5 ends Lurgan could only pick up two more shots to Whitehead’s Four leaving them down 19-23.

Next Saturday, with 13 wins in the bag so far, Lurgan A travel to Newcastle in what could be the league decider. A win for Lurgan would all but earn them the title.