Mixed fortunes for the Lurgan bowlers last week

Lurgan A got off to a slow start and only Alan Roberts’ four looked like they were getting to grips with a tricky green made worse by a strong cross wind.

Nigel Hamilton’s rink started to get come back at their opposition to bring Lurgan within a few shots at the halfway mark. Unfortunately this lead was short lived and with Ronan Cregan and John Gilliland struggling on the other two rinks Whitehead romped home in the end to an easy 37-shot victory.

It was a similar story for Lurgan A in their mid-week league match against Dundonald. Again, the wind played havoc with the green but Lurgan had no excuses as they lost on all fours rinks and the overall score by 47 shots.

On Tuesday night week Lurgan B met up on the Lurgan Park Green with Antrim Lawn in a NIBA Junior Cup Quarter-Final and totally dictated the entire match with a fine display of bowling at the expense of the 14-person visitors to coast into the semi-final by a colossal 42.25 shots.

Wilfie McCullough, skipping on Rink 1 led his team admirably to a masterful 28-10 victory aided by them winning 6 ends on the trot that included a magnificent 5-shot win on the 9th end facing Robert Walker’s rink.

On Rink 2 Stewart Martin with his three colleagues got off to a flying start with a 7-0 lead after 6 ends but with Smyth’s rink getting used to the green they tightened Martin’s lead to 12-10 after 13 ends but the home rink responded positively to win the last 5 ends and take the rink by 23 -10 (reduced to 23-7.5 with the Antrim Lawn side fielding 3 bowlers).

Peter Dew and his team on Rink 3 recorded another fine win with his trio against Robert McCullough’s rink to stride into an 18-5 lead after 10 ends. McCullough’s rink made in-roads into Dew’s lead but it was to no avail with Dew’s rink finish a good evening’s work with a 21-12 win.

On the difficult Rink 4 Mike Parr and his rink fought hard against Tom Evans and his pair to win 14-12.75 on a reduced score to ensure an overall 4-rink 86-42.25 win on the night – a superb evening’s bowling by all of the Lurgan B team who are looking forward to playing Castleton at The Grove on Wednesday evening, 25th of this month at 6.30 p.m. in the Semi-final.

Last Saturday the Lurgan B side travelled up to Coleraine to meet Brookgreen in the 2nd Round of the Irish Junior Cup having won through at home in the 1st Round with a very tight match against City of Derry.

The team is getting used to knife-edge finishes and last weekend’s match was no exception with the home team being just ahead going into the last end. Simon Maguire’s rink was lying 3 shots at one time on the 21st with the Lurgan side looking to tie the match and head out again to settle it in the visitor’s favour.

Sadly, it was not to be. The Brookgreen skip took the jack to lie shot but Simon Maguire, skip on Rink 1, sent a brilliant bowl to the head to regain the shot but it wasn’t enough to win the match overall.

Simon had field day with his team on Rink 1 while holding the opposition to 7-7 at the midpoint but then them taking the next 4 ends, including an exceptional 7-shot win on the 14th end, they stormed into a 7-18 lead, to which Graham and his trio had to answer for Maguire’s rink to finish worthy winners by 13-24.

Luke Donaldson was in superb form with his drawing shots on Rink 2 supported by his trio, that included Shirley Dew who bowled brilliantly to frustrate her opposition second throughout the match.

His rink took a 5-shot on the 7th end for them to go 5-11 ahead and then to never give the home rink a look-in and stride to a fine 14-23 win on the day.

Peter Dew and his bowlers had a tough call facing Jim Lees’ rink to finish 12-25 down with Wilfie McCullough’s losing out by 15-27 but great credit to them for keeping going in a laudable effort to assist the Lurgan B winning rinks to take them through to the next round.

On Saturday the B Team travels to Whitehead to meet their B Team in a Division 3 match; while Lurgan A stays at home to challenge local rivals, Banbridge in Division 1 at 2pm.