New season underway for Portglenone bowlers

President, Mr Roy Hunter, and his wife Janice, hosted a very successful and enjoyable event. Janice officially opened the green for another season and an evening of fun bowls and a barbeque was held.

The event was well supported by both the members and friends of the club, and a substantial amount of money was raised for the President’s nominated charity for 2012 – Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Portglenone opened their 2012 Senior League campaign on Saturday with a tricky encounter away to Colerane-based Brookgreen and a tense, tightly contested match was played out, with Portglenone again coming from behind to complete a 15 shot win and a well deserved 6 points.

Adam Hunter, Frank Jackson, Paul Grey and Roy Hunter took on the rink skipped by Ian Ross. This was Paul’s debut for the ‘wee’ Port and would prove a close affair.

The Brookgreen rink edged the first 5 ends taking a 5-3 lead, however, after 10 ends, Roy had cut Ian’s lead to a single shot at 8-7. Ian had the better of the next 5 ends and stretched his lead to 14-11. This was enough to give Ian the spur he needed, and he went on the win the match 20-13.

Stephen Young, Peter McCann, Jonathan Reid and Eamon McCann were drawn against the rink skipped by the returning Joe Moore.

Again, the Brookgreen rink was the quickest out of the blocks and had taken an 8-4 lead in the first 5 ends. The next 5 ends were evenly contested resulting in Joe being 13-10 ahead after 10.

The game began to turn in Eamon’s favour over the next 5 ends, with Eamon scoring 9 shots and conceding only 2 to take the lead 19-15 after 15 ends. Joe never gave up, however, once in front, Eamon never looked back and went on to record a 23-17 victory.

Mark Jones, Frankie Cassidy, Gary Merron and Keith Padgett faced Brookgreen’s Alistair Calvin. This was also Gary’s Senior debut for the club.

Like the other rinks, Keith found himself 5-3 behind after the opening salvo of ends, and over the next 7 ends, Keith’s rink clawed themselves back to level the game at 9-9.

From that moment on, the entire rink would play some great bowls, and Gary can be very proud of his debut. At 15 ends, Keith had opened up a 5 shot lead going 15-10 up, and even the loss of a 4 on the 17th end could not stop Keith beginning the season with a well deserved 23-15 win.

However, the real story of the match unfolded on the final rink, with Mark Pearson, Geoff Padgett, Aaron Foster and Chris Jones taking on the rink skipped by David Gaile.

Like all the other Portglenone rinks, Chris found himself 4-2 behind after 5 ends. Mark Pearson was putting in a sterling performance at lead, however, lady luck seemed to be favouring the Brookgreen rink, and after 12 ends, Chris found himself staring down the barrel of defeat and 14-3 down.

Nevertheless, the entire rink dug deep and turned in a performance over the final nine ends that any team would have been proud of. A fantastic five on the 13th end turned the game on its head, and Chris’s rink began an amazing comeback.

A run of 2, 1, 1, 1, 3, 1, 4, 1 saw Chris complete a famous victory with 19 unanswered shots to win 22-14.

Portglenone’s next League fixture is away to Dunluce this Saturday.