Lurgan lady bowlers enjoy sensational week of success at the Association Championships
During last week the Northern Ireland Women’s Association Championships were hosted by the Lisnagarvey club and it was a memorable one for Lurgan Ladies. Shirley Dew,Teri Millar and Doreen Whelan who were crowned 2025 Triples Champions while on the previous day also becoming 2025 Pairs Champions.
Lurgan’s Shirley Dew, Teri Millar and Doreen Whelan were engaged in an epic Triples encounter with Portadown’s Louise Lawson, Lorriane Grimley and Sandra Whittle – a match that wasn’t settled to the last end in what was one of the closest finishes seen for a long time with the Lurgan trio emerging as 2025 Champions.
The spectators were on the edge of their seats throughout the match that could have a gone either way with both teams bowling at their best to produce many challenging close ends.
After the opening 3 ends the Portadown Triple had taken a 1-4 lead but Doreen Whelan and her partners were unfazed when they responded positively to take single shots with an excellent 4-shot win on the next end to go 5-4 ahead.
The Portadown trio piled on the pressure to win single shots on the next 3 ends to take a 5-7 lead and although the Lurgan side took a shot on the next end the 9th and 10th ends went the wrong way for the opposition to go dangerously ahead by 6-10.
Doreen Whelan and her partners regained their confidence to win the next 4 ends to go into a narrow 11-10 lead only to drop 3 shots for Sandra Whittle’s team to regain the lead with powerful bowling resulting in a 3-shot win on the next end.
With things looking to be going in Portadown’s favour, Doreen, Teri and Shirley acted with Championship-winning determination to tie at 13-13 going into the last end and what a dramatic finish to end a superb match.
What a finish to such an end to a most exciting match. A very close head ensued with the lead changing throughout but with the Lurgan skip delivering her last bowl right into the head. Then drama; the opposing thirds could not decide on who was to get the shot to win. The skips were called up and still no decision; then the umpire, Desi O’Neill was called who had to draw on his calipers to decide on the lying bowl.
The umpire’s decision was in favour of the Lurgan Ladies with disappointment for the worthy Portadown trio; much to the excitement of the Lurgan supporters Doreen, Teri and Shirley emerged as 2025 NIWBA Triples Champions to send them into to the IWBA Finals on behalf of the NIWBA at Lurgan Park on 29th, 30th and 31st August hosted by Lurgan Bowler, Angela Thompson who is IWBA President this year.
What a week for Teri Millar and Doreen Whelan facing Jennifer McClure and Bridget Smith of Castle Park, Newcastle to decide the winners the 2025 NIWBA Pair Championship on the previous day.
The Lurgan Pair took hold of the match from the start to go into a 6-shot lead after the first 3 ends and then went on to restrict the unfortunate Newcastle pair to two single shot wins over the match at the hands of scintillating bowling by Millar and Whelan for them to win 17-2 with the McClure and Smith conceding after 14 ends – another super NIWBA Pairs Championship win for the Lurgan Pair who will represent the NIWBA in the forthcoming Irish Championships at the end of this month.