Five Private Greens titles in one day for Dunbarton

Never before in the club's history had they won more than four titles in one year but on Saturday they lifted the main four of Singles, Pairs, Triples and Fours as well as the U18 singles.

In 1999, the club had an incredible year when their players won the U25 singles, pairs, triples and fours. This was a feat that many thought would never be beaten, until Saturday.

The only two disciplines that the club did not win were the U25 singles where Jack A Moffett lost in the final and the Senior (Over 55s) Rinks where Chris Mulholland's foursome lost out narrowly in the semi final. It was very nearly a clean sweep! The locals will now head to Bangor Bowling Club on the weekend of August 30/31 hoping to land some Irish titles for themselves and their club.

Open Singles

The Open Singles is the blue riband event and only five players from the club had ever won this title. Club legend Stevie Adamson started the ball rolling in 1990 and was followed by wins for DJ Wilson (x3), Clifford Dennison, Myles Greenfield and Peter Convery. On Saturday afternoon, David Copeland added his name to that illustrious list.

During the week, David faced clubmate Jack A Moffett in the semi final which was a cracking high quality encounter. This game went right to the wire with David edging it 21-19. This then set up a final with the 2018 runner up Alan McLean from Larne.

This was a cagey affair early on with little separating the two players but during the middle part of the game, David looked to have taken control when he opened up a 13-7 advantage. On the next end however McLean bounced back with a bang lifting a maximum count of four and suddenly David's lead was 2 shots.

The next number of ends were nip and tuck and at 17 shots apiece it was now anyone's game. When McLean picked up a single to move ahead on the following end it was the Larne man now in pole position, but unperturbed David then produced a magnificent end to count a treble and leave himself one shot from glory.

The next end was cagey but with his third bowl David drew shot and now had a match lie. With his third bowl, McLean drew short and it was very much advantage to the Dunbarton man. Not wishing to disturb the head, David played a wide delivery and it was up to McLean to try and save the day with his final bowl.

In fairness the Larne man produced a fine attempt to turn the jack but with a large gap between shot bowl and the jack, the bowl travelled straight through the gap to leave David a deserved winner.

An outstanding achievement for the Dunbarton bowler who has played for the B team all season. He held his nerve when it mattered most and is now the Private Greens Singles Champion – a tremendous effort!

Open Pairs

In the pairs it was Richard McMullan and club stalwart Myles Greenfield who were aiming to win this title and bring it back to the club for the sixth time. They negotiated a potential banana skin in the semi final on the previous Tuesday when they defeated this year's surprise package from Belmont skipped by S Agnew by 6 shots. This set up a tricky final against the Duncan's from Ballymena. And what a game this turned out to be!

On a fast and swingy rink, this game was a classic but importantly, from the moment that Dunbarton's Myles turned the jack for two shots on the first end, they never fell behind.

Early on they opened a good lead, ahead 6-2 and 8-4 and by the 10 ends mark they were clear favourites leading 12-5. But the Ballymena pair are a very dangerous pair and were never going to give in and within three ends had narrowed their deficit to one shot. However, skip Myles has played all over the world and knew not to panic.

On the following end, the Dunbarton pair produced a terrific end of drawing bowls to score a count of five and now led by 6 shots with four ends remaining. Needless to say, back came the Duncans and with two ends remaining the gap was now two shots.

With one bowl remaining on the penultimate end it looked like the Ballymena pair would count a single but a fantastic last bowl by skip Myles “sprung the jack” for shot and a vital three shot lead going into the last end.

The last end proved to be nerve wracking. Opposition lead David Duncan produced a fine end of drawing bowls and lay three shots and left skip Myles a very awkward head to try and cut down the shots against. With 6 of the skips bowls played, there was still no change and it looked as though this game could go to a tie end.

Yet again though Myles showed his big game experience and with his final bowl, turned in Richard's front bowl for third shot meaning that they now held game with one bowl remaining. And when skip Duncan missed with his final delivery, joyous scenes ensued!

This also completed the set for Myles who has now won the singles, pairs, triples and fours, only the second player from Dunbarton to emulate this feat after his good friend DJ Wilson.

Open Triples

In the triples Richard McMullan, Jack Kidd and Marty Trainor faced the Belmont trio of Dean Mills, Don Mills and Ryan Cavan in the final. Confidence was high in the Dunbarton camp as the previous Monday in the semi final, the men in yellow and black had destroyed Jim Baker's Ballymena triple 19-5 after 14 ends and knew that if they put on the same display, they would be very hard to beat in the final. This proved to be a much trickier affair.

Early on there was nothing to separate the sides as the Gilford triple led 3-2 but the next end proved to be disastrous. For the majority of the end, it looked as though Marty's men were going to score heavily as some brilliant bowls by Richie and Jack left them lying six shots.

However when Cavan hit the head and sprung the jack, suddenly it was the Belmont men that lay five shots. And when Marty uncharacteristically threw a wayward final delivery, all their early good work was undone as they now trailed by four shots.

For the remainder of the game Cavan's trio had their noses in front and with four ends remaining they held a six shot advantage at 16-10.But this Gilford trio were never going to give up and two singles and a double left them in arrears by two shots going into the final end.

And what a final end they played!

Lead Richie drew right beside the jack, and whilst his opposite number drew a very close second shot, Dunbarton second Jack was able to add more bowls into the head and with just the skips remaining, whilst holding one shot, the head was very much in the favour of the Dunbarton men.

Under tremendous pressure, skip Marty delivered a wonderful first bowl to plant the nearest Belmont bowl out of the head and suddenly they lay three shots for a match lie! The next five bowls saw Cavan drive and miss, Marty blocker, Cavan drive and miss, Marty blocker and finally another Cavan drive and miss, albeit he hit Marty's blocker and planted Richie's front bowl into the head but only for another shot.

For a second of two the Gilford hearts were in their mouths in case the short bowl moved the jack but thankfully not and more joyous scenes broke out.

This was the sixth time the triples title has been won by a Dunbarton trio. Two years David Copeland, Myles Greenfield and DJ Wilson were victorious, against the exact same Belmont trio that Marty's men defeated on Saturday!!

Open Fours

Over the years, the Fours has been Dunbarton's most successful competition with the club having lifted this trophy 9 times. However this hadn't been won since Myles Greenfield and his men last lifted it in 2014 so ten years later and thanks to Jack Kidd, Ben Hogg, Brian Prunty and David Copeland, it made it's way back to Gilford.

Firstly on Thursday night, David's four had to navigate their way past clubmates Myles Greenfield, DJ Wilson, Conor McCartan and Alan Paul in a cracking semi final. This they did by the narrowest of margins and thanks in the main to some huge pressure bowls by skip David.

This set up a final against Kevin O'Neill, Brendan Power, Gerard McGleave and Terry Crawford from the host club. On paper this was a tough game, made even harder by the fact that Crawford's men were playing on their home surface.

Throughout this game the lead swung to and fro but there was literally nothing in the game as the locals matched the hosts bowl for bowl. After 10 of the allotted 18 ends the scores were locked at 6 shots apiece with most ends decided by a single shot.

From ends 11-16, the Gilford men began to exert pressure to their Salisbury counterparts with all four Dunbarton bowlers drawing close bowls and suddenly with two ends remaining they held a three shot lead.

But sure enough it was no surprise when the Salisbury quartet scored a double on the penultimate end to leave one shot separating the sides in what was a remarkably close contest throughout. The last end proved to be a nail biter!

First up the Salisbury lead O'Neill produced a fine delivery to draw right beside the jack and despite some excellent attempts by the front end of Jack and Ben, they were unable to secure shot.

The Salisbury third then drew a second shot, only for Brian Prunty to reduce the deficit to one shot and this was how the head remained with just the skips to play. And with both skips very close with their first bowls, but not close enough, the hosts still held the one shot and it looked like the game was heading for an extra end.

Then came a cruel twist for the home rink and a wonderful slice of luck for Davy's foursome. With his final bowl, skip Terry Crawford, drew into the head aiming for a second shot and to lie game, but he was marginally heavy with his drawing shot.

As the bowl came closer to the head, it was evident that his line was perfect to draw to the jack but he was slightly overweight and he turned the jack to the closest Dunbarton bowl to give away the shot and with that, the Dunbarton rink were victorious.

A cruel end for the hosts to lose the game but what a wonderful achievement for a rink that had never played together before this season. With lead Jack just 20 and second Ben only 17, this was a remarkable success story.

They blended perfectly with the experienced back end of Brian and David and having defeated some excellent rinks on the way to their trophy will now head to Bangor hoping to finish the season with an Irish title together.

Under 18 Singles

This competition was only formed in 2000 and since it's formation, only Jack Kidd has lifted this trophy for Dunbarton in 2019. On Saturday, 17 year old Ben Hogg, added his name to the winner's rostrum.

Earlier in the week he had faced clubmate and good friend Daire Trainor and produced a fine performance to win 21-11. In the final he came up against J O'Neill from the host club. His opponent had defeated two of Ben's clubmates, Shea Trainor in the quarter final and Brogan McMillan in the semi final, both by the narrowest of margins, 21-20 so some people may have thought his name was on the trophy. However, there was only ever going to be one winner in this game as Ben simply outclassed his opponent.

Having secured the Fours title in the morning, Ben's confidence was high and early on he moved ahead by 8 shots to 5. Over the next number of ends it was simply one way traffic as the Dunbarton young starlet put his opponent under pressure bowl after bowl and remarkably scored 13 unanswered shots to lift the title 21-5 at a canter.

This capped off an amazing day for young Ben who lifted his first two Private Greens titles and no doubt there are many more to come for this outstanding young bowler.

Under 25 singles

Reigning British Isles Under 25 champion Jack A Moffett was hoping to retain his Private Greens title on Saturday but alas fell at the final hurdle. During the week, he safely negotiated the challenge from Dale Bodles of Larne, setting up a final against Bodles' team mate Ian Gingles. And this turned out to be an absolute cracker of a game.

Both players played to an extremely high standard and arguably this was the best game on the green on Saturday in terms of quality.

Jack started with a bang scoring a maximum on the first end and opened up an early 10-6 advantage but his opponent was in fine fettle and soon bounced back to lead 10-11. This lead was extended to 14-17 and despite all of Jack's best efforts, Gingles continually drew the pressure shot when he needed to. Eventually with the Larne bowler leading 17-20, he drew yet another back toucher and despite some fine attempts, Jack was unable to remove this bowl and succumbed to a disappointing 17-21 reverse.

On another day Jack could easily have won this as he played some excellent bowls but credit must be given to his Larne adversary who on the day produced an outstanding performance to lift the title.

Overall a truly wonderful day for the Gilford Club and all eyes will turn to Bangor at the end of the month for the Irish finals to see how many of the 5 PG titles can be turned into Irish titles!

Meanwhile this Saturday (10th) is another massive day for Dunbarton Bowling Club as both the A team and B team aim to make it through to the finals of their respective Irish Cups. And both teams have home advantage!

First up, the Dunbarton A team will take on Portrush for a place in the final of the Irish Senior Cup. The two teams have played each other a number of times over the past 10 years with the winner always being the home side. The Gilford men will be hoping this trend continues! This game starts at 1pm.

Then at 5.30pm the Dunbarton B team will host old foes Balmoral A in the semi final of the Irish Intermediate Cup. Their Belfast rivals currently sit top of Division Two with Dunbarton B second so this could be an incredibly close game. Again the locals will be hoping that home advantage pays off.

Fingers crossed by around 9pm this Saturday night, the club will be through to two Irish Cup finals!