Success for Ballybrakes bowlers in Irish finals

The ladies brought the first two titles home. Shauna O’Neill and Megan Devlin, last year’s pairs winners, teamed up with the teenage duo of Zoe Stratton and Sophie McIntyre to win the rinks.

They defeated Belfast in the semi-finals, which left an all-Ballybrakes final, but the young girls ran out winning by 11 shots against the rink skipped by Dessa Baird. The young duo had also qualified in the pairs meeting clubmates Noelle Graham and Dessa Baird in the semi-finals, winning by two shots.

In the final, they lost out 26 – 6. Shauna had also qualified for both the ladies and under 25 singles. Winning both semi-final games she played fellow clubmate Zoe in the final of the under 25’s beating her 21 – 5 to regain her title, and what could only be described as a “cruel result” in what turned out to be the last end of the ladies’ singles, lost 21-16.

Noelle Graham, Anne McKillop and Dessa Baird had also won through to the final of the ladies triples, only to lose by three shots against Belfast.

Derek Smith played his way through to all four finals. He had success in the rinks along with Ian McClure, Alastair Kennedy and Aaron Tennant 17 – 9, but lost in his other finals, 21-13 in the singles, 19 – 8 in the triples, and the pairs final was an extremely close contested game with Ian and Derek just losing by one shot.

The final of the senior fours was the game of the weekend, the Ballybrakes four were 20 – 2 down at the half-way stage. The men rallied and pulled the game back, one shot on the final end to Hoggy’s rink gave them the win and they regained their title. All the winners will now represent Ireland at next month’s British Isles Championships in Scotland.

Results:

Ladies’ fours S O’Neill 23 S Bailie 19, S McAuley 13 D Baird 14, Final S O’Neill 28 D Baird 17.

Ladies triples A McLaughlin 12 D Baird 16, S O’Neill 7 S Bailie, 18 Final D Baird 15 S Bailie 18.

Ladies’ pairs D Baird 19 S McIntyre 21, S Bailie 26 S McIntyre 6.

Ladies’ singles M Devlin 20 S O’Neill 21, Final S O’Neill 16 S Bailie 21.

Ladies U25 singles S O’Neill 21 Z Minish 15, I Larrigan 9 Z Stratton 21, Final S O’Neill 21 Z Stratton 5.

Men’s Senior fours R Barr 22 C Hogg 24, Final S Coleman 23 C Hogg 24.

Men’s fours I McClure 18 S Bennett 6, Final P Prunty 9 I McClure 17.

Men’s triples A Kyle 16 P Prunty 14, R Miller 9 I McClure 12, Final A Kyle 19 I McClure 8.

Men’s Pairs I McClure 16 R Kirkwood 6, A Walker 14 S Bennett 17, Final S Bennett 14 I McClure 13.

Men’s singles C Hogg 20 D Smith 21, Final S Martin 21 D Smith 13.

Men’s U25 singles J Moffett 21 A Stratton 19.