Seniors suffer another away-day disappointment

Lurgan 69 (1)

Lurgan’s Seniors continue to struggle to find successful away form - as has been the case over the last few seasons - especially with tricky and heavy greens to which they are not accustomed to at home.

It was no different at the Larne club, Curran at the weekend when they lost by narrowly by 9 shots in a match in which they had taken up to a 7-shot lead in the middle ends.

Lurgan’s solitary point was down to an excellent win on Rink 1 by Alan Briggs, skip, Peter McGrail, Gordon Bell and Dan Dempsey facing J Wallace’s home rink. Briggs’ rink raced into an incredible 14-1 lead after 7 ends and continued to dominate the remainder of their game to win 25-15.

On Rink 2, Alan Roberts, skip, Will McCullough, Dick McClune and Bobby Boness struggled in the early stages of their game against J McIlwrath’s rink to be 16 shots down after 5 ends. Although they fought hard they never recovered from the early setback finally losing 27-14.

Mansel Montgomery, skipping on Rink 3, with Harry Cosgrove, Jeff McCullough and Ronnie McCullough were unfortunate not bring home another point against R.

Robinson’s rink. Taking an early 6-shot lead after 5 ends, they held it until they succumbed to a strong home rink finish to be only 5 shots short of a win; just missing out on a vital league point; losing 19-15.

John Gilliland, skip on Rink 4, Bobby Ruddell, Declan McCabrey and Ivor Mitchell had a tough encounter with M Dickey’s rink just losing narrowly by 18-14 after being all square at 10-10 each after 12 ends and 13-13 after 17 ends when they were looking good for a rink win; but dropping 3 shots on the next end cost them a point. Next Saturday Lurgan plays Dungannon at home and are hoping to overcome their present difficulties and lift their spirits with a good league win.

Early Championship success for Lurgan Bowlers

The NIBA Singles Championships are underway for this season with Dan Dempsey narrowly losing his 1st Round Singles match by 20-18 away to Thomas Canavan,

Bangor at Ward Park. Two Lurgan Triples were involved in close exciting 2nd Round encounters on the Park Green when Mansel Montgomery’s triple just slipped past Paddy McCaffrey’s Divis by 20-18 with Harry Cosgrove’s losing by a slender 2 shots on the last end against P. Weir, Whitehead. Mansel Montgomery’s Senior Four went on to face J Gallagher’s rink on the tricky Divis playing surface and played extremely well to win 20-18.