Lurgan B took on Curran B in a Division 3 match last Saturday on the Lurgan Park Green in glorious sunshine and soon overcome last weekend’s heavy Irish Junior Cup 3rd Rd defeat away to Ballymena B.

The Lurgan team was soon in control and were 16 shots ahead at the halfway point of the 18-end match and 33 after 13 ends; after which they coasted to an excellent 47-shot full 7-point win to shoot them up into sixth place.

Micheal Bunting and his mates got off to a confident start to lead 11-4 at midpoint and by 10 shots after the 14th end. With the rink win in sight they never give Billy Swann’s rink a look-in with Bunting’s rink taking eight shots off the last four ends to post an excellent 24-4.5 with the visitors losing a quarter of their shots due to being able to field only three players.

On the adjacent rink Gareth Bunting and his team dictated the first six ends to be 10-2 ahead facing Michael Dickey’s rink but the Lurgan four were set back when Dickey’s took seven shots off the next four ends to be on the tail of Bunting’s rink at 10-9. They recovered from the temporary plip when they claimed eight shots off the next five ends to lead 18-9 and looking good for a rink win.

Gareth Bunting, Lurgan B Skip directing operations at the head last Satruday

placeholder image — Gareth Bunting, Lurgan B Skip directing operations at the head last Satruday

Dickey’s rink wasn’t finished by any means and won the last four ends but it still wasn’t enough to stop Bunting winning 18-14 to claim another league point.

Billy Strain and his colleagues were slightly ahead of Tony Diamond’s rink at 7-4 after nine ends but their brilliant six-shot win on the next end took them into a 13-4 lead that turned out to be absolutely critical to their 16-12 with the majority of the ends going the visitors’ way over the remainer of their match but still a very good contribution to Lurgan B’s full point win.

On the far rink Mike Parr and his team mates had a field day against Leon Craig’s triple rink. After a cautious start with a slender lead of 6-5 after seven ends Parr’s rink sprang into action to totally out-bowl the opposition by winning 10 ends out of the 11 still to play and to complete a fantastic 24-4.5 (reduced from six) win on the day.

On Saturday the B Team head off to play Belfast team, 1st Ballymacarrett in another Division Three when they are hoping to maintain their 6th place.