Warrenpoint Bowlers enjoy a win in the sunshine

​Warrenpoint 92 Shots (5½ pts) Castleton 72 Shots (1½ pts)

The weather gods were certainly favouring the bowlers, on Saturday since the heavy downpours subsided just before play began and a beautiful afternoon accrued which culminated in a 20-shot winning margin for Warrenpoint over north Belfast side Castleton at Clonallon Park.

The big winners was the rink of Frank McCarthy, who in fact had a winning score of twenty points, with a 30 shots to 10 victory, with once again a strong front end performance from Kieran Finnison and Ray Keen.

The other winner for the Point, with a much narrower margin of two shots was the rink of Keith Tohill, with Gary Robinson showing a strong performance in his now accustomed role of number two.

The third rink was a tight tussle, with Seamus Gibney’s four leading by one shot going into the final end. With one bowl to play, they were four shots to the good, but the Belfast skip David Bryans bowled the perfect delivery to overcome the margin and ensure a tie on that rink for his team 21 all.

Eamon McLoughlin was not able to continue his recent winning streak and in game that ebbed and flowed for both sides. He was not able to pull back the fast start from the Belfast side, loosing out by 21 shots to 19. The match was kindly sponsored by McGahon Surveyors Ltd.

Before the match a one minutes silence took place in honour of club stalwart Fintan McCreevy who died last week after a long battle against illness.

Having played for both Bessbrook and Rathfriland, Fintan joined his home town club shortly after it was formed back in the nineteen nighties and up until two years ago, was still playing midweek and veterans fixtures for his home town club and also offering advice to the players, up until the end of last season, before his illness finally took hold.

Rink 1: Tina Keen, Brendan Mulvenna, Darren O’Hare, Seamus Gibney – 21 Shots

T McIlwaine, T Murphy, D Smith, D Bryans - 21 Shots

Rink 2: Donal Larmour, Gary Robinson, Thomas Hanna, Keith Tohill – 21 Shots

H Sweeney, S Hughes, C Miles, Alan Miles – 19 Shots

Rink 3: Barney O’Hare, Eamon Hurley, Ian Gilmour, Eamon McLoughlin -19 Shots

K Miles, T Anderson, N Mounce, G Miles – 21 Shots

Rink 4: Kieran Finnison, Ray Keen, Michael Waterman, Frank McCarthy – 30 Shots

G Saversee, T Woodside, K Highes, D Evans – 10 Shots

Midweek League

In the Newry and Mourne Midweek league there were three matches. Both Warrenpoint sides played against Newcastle on successive nights, but both failed to register a win against a very strong side.

Clonallon had another midweek match against Newry and in a tight tussle at Willis Park, the home side came out stronger with a 2 rinks to one over Thomas’s Hannas side. In fact it was Thomas who was the winner for the Point team with Anne-Marie Kidd, Thomas Malocca and Paul Carville, beating Chris Larkins rink by 17 shots to nine.

In a close encounter Sean Lively pulled away in the last few ends from the rink of Brendan Mulvenna winning by 17 shots to 10, while Ray Keens rink fell short by five shots to Kieran Sands.