Railway still on track for First Division title

Between them they won three of the first four frames with no thanks to their captain G Murphy who lost again and now has as many defeats as wins this season.

But they weren’t in for an easy night as the Anglers secret weapons BJ and C McAnearney leveled the match before the doubles.

The Railway had to dig their heels in, and after impressing in the singles J McGivern and D Murphy came through to guarantee them a point.

The match was at the Railway’s mercy and Captain Murphy took new boy R Paxton under his wing and beat the formidable pairing of BJ and Cathal McAnarney to put the Railway clear at the top of the table with the Market.

O’Reilly’s 3 Market Bar 5 - As per usual O’Reillys team captain N Monaghan put them 1-0 up, and as per usual O’Reillys went on to lose in what has been a terrible run of form.

Wins from M McCormack, N Finnegan, D Russell, and P Beggs secured the Market Bar at least a point with veteran Decky McConville keeping the game at least interesting for the time being.

Captain Ruby and Marty Shep give O’Reillys at least a sweat going into the last frame making it 4-3 but the market wouldn’t let their lead at the top of the table slip so easily and won the last doubles match to secure a 5-3 win.

Gilford Inn 2 Imperial 6 - Gilford’s recent form has been impressive but they were brought back down to earth this week by an imperious imperial team.

Ivor Wilsons men steamrolled to victory and Ivor himself, opened the scoring it 1-0, but Gilford Capt B Campbell, who has been in impressive form individually equalised.

The Imperial then went on the rampage winning five of the last six with Paul ‘Rubber’ Buchanan the only letdown in an impressive win.

Bus Bar 6 Mullhollands B 2 - TB’s came out on top in this mid-table clash but they did not start as they would have liked, going to 2-1 down early on with S Wilson and R Currie doing the damage for the Dromore side and N McMorrin winning for TB’s.

However, Tam Barney’s wished to keep their recent good form going and wins from P McClean, publican K Lennon and N McQuaid would see that they were guaranteed a point before the doubles matches had started.

It’s said that Captain Dave ‘The Grouse’ and his partner Neil ‘The Whirlwind’ McMorrin potted like two pros to put the home side 5-2 up and secure the match!

Although the last frame was irrelevant to the result, the home side were not going to surrender frame so easy and Kieran Lennon doubled the black as his opponent exclaimed “You can’t seriously be going for that!”

First&Last 5 Bridge Bar 3 - This local derby produced more action than controversy this time.

Brian Lyness was in control throughout the opening frame to put the home team 1-0 up, and recent signing Brian Mccourt followed suit along with Taepot in what was an ideal start for a team who have really found their feet in recent weeks.

After a battle of the team captains, Ryan Hunter pulled one back for the Bridge Bar, but the F&L Capt B Burns will be considering dropping himself next week after another defeat

M Rice defeated Stevie Green to make it 3-2 and continue is unbeaten start to the season against the former bridge bar B team player.

The F&L’s golden boy C Parrott stepped up to defeat Deano after fluking the black.

The doubles were an awkward affair and with Capt B Burns trying to earn some credibility for himself left the game on for his partner to ping out a finish, only to pot the black and white in the same shot!

Thank fully for him Brian Lyness and Taepot had already secured the match in the previous frame.

The Firstnlast’s form has been as good as anybody recently and having a few new signings, I’m sure they’ll be fighting for the title come the run-in at the end of the season!

The league table is really starting to take shape and everyone has an idea who the front runners and whipping boys will be!

Keep an eye out next week for the three-a-side results, matches to be played on Monday, 12 November.

I hope everyone involved in the league has been, and will be, donating kindly to the Movember campaign, It is not hard to spot the people taking donations as they all have a tash of some sort by now!

Table after week 6:

Railway 10

Market B 10

Bus Bar 8

Anglers Rest 7

Mulholland’s B 6

First&Last 6

Imperial 5

Bridge Bar B 3

Gilford Inn. 3

O’Reillys 2