Sponsorship boost for Portglenone bowlers

This would prove to be a close encounter as the Altnagelvin based club were in search of a few points to guarantee their Senior bowls status.

Before the game, the Portglenone President, Roy Hunter, welcomed Kieran Bradley, proprietor of the Wild Duck Inn, to the Pavilion.

Kieran announced a new sponsorship package which will see the Wild Duck Inn become the club’s new main sponsor for the next three years.

The committee and members of Portglenone Bowling Club thank Kieran and the Wild Duck Inn for their continued support and look forward to the future together.

On rink 1, Peter McCann, Stephen Young, Adam Hunter & Eamon McCann took on the rink skipped by L Graham.

Eamon’s rink struggled to settle in the early ends of this match and perhaps this set a precedent for the remainder of the game. Eamon found himself 5-2 behind after 5 ends and again this was increased to 9-4 at the halfway mark.

Eamon’s rink never scored more than a single shot in any end, and this would prove their undoing, as at 15 ends, Eamon was 14-6 down and they finished the game losing 18-9.

Andrew Millar, Aaron Foster, Gary Merron & Keith Padgett were drawn against J Louden on rink 2.

The first 5 ends of this game were evenly shared at 4-4, however, a pattern began to develop over the next 5 ends which was to define this game.

With more than the rub of the green for the Altnagelvin rink, Keith’s rink were only able to score a single shot in reply to Louden’s 7 to give City of Derry a 10-5 lead at the halfway stage. Despite a 4 on the 14th end, Keith was 18-10 down after 15 ends and staring defeat in the face.

With the overall score at stake, the rink rallied over the final 3 ends to put some shots on the board and finished with a 23-14 defeat.

On rink 3, Mark Jones, Jim Gaul, Geoff Padgett & Chris Jones were pitted against R Kincaid.

Chris opened up an early advantage which would prove insurmountable to lead 9-1 after 5 ends. The lead was further extended to 13-3 after 10 ends, with Jim Gaul was playing inspiring bowls and Mark Jones in one of those “machine” moods.

Chris stretched the lead further again to 17-6 after 15 ends, and with the rink continuing to play great bowls, Chris’s rink went on to be deserving winners 23-9.

Mark Pearson, Kieran Adams, Paul Gray & Roy Hunter took on the rink skipped by A Smyth on rink 4.

The early ends were closely fought, with Roy edging ahead 7-6 after 5 ends. A burst of scoring for the wee port saw Roy increase that advantage to 7 shots at 14-7 after 10 ends.

Roy was leading by example and played some inspirational bowls and as a result, further increased the lead to 21-8 after 5 ends. With the overall score finely balanced, Roy’s rink pressed on to win their game 23-13 and help secure the overall points.

Portglenone edged this game 69-63 and took 5 well deserved points.

The Bannsiders were in action in the semi-final of the Mullan Cup away to Dunluce last night (Monday) and their final league game of 2012 is away to Ballymoney the following Monday night, 27th August.