Superb win in Irish Senior Cup for Dunbarton A team at Ballymena

Over the past ten to 15 years, this has not been a happy hunting ground for the Gilford side but the locals produced a gritty win.

As expected this was a very tight game but the men in yellow and black showed their class and nerve to win an epic encounter by seven shots.

The heroes on the day were Ryan McElroy, Kieran Trainor, Andy Hughes and Jack A Moffett who won by 11 shots while the other three games were extremely tight. And bowl of the day came from skip Jack on end 19 of their game.

With just two shots separating the teams overall, Jack ditched the jack with his final bowl for a count of three having had five shots against him and this magnificent bowl seemed to knock the stuffing out of the hosts.

With DJ Wilson springing the jack for two on the rink beside at almost the same time, what looked like a four-shot lead for Ballymena with just a few ends left became an eight-shot lead for the visitors and they successfully navigated the last couple of ends for a titanic victory.

As mentioned the other three contests were extremely close with Conor McCartan securing a last end double for a one shot win while Barry Browne and DJ Wilson lost narrowly by two and three shots respectively. A wonderful win for the Dunbarton men.

Rink 1 D McElroy, R McMullan, A O’Keefe, DJ Wilson down 20-23

Rink 2 R McElroy, K Trainor, A Hughes, JA Moffett up 25-14

Rink 3 J Kidd, J Magennis, M Trainor, B Browne down 14-16

Rink 4 D Jordan J Moffett, A Paul, C McCartan up 19-18

As a reward for this win, the locals will face another huge clash when they host Belmont in the quarter final on Saturday 20th July.

And indeed, this weekend will be a dress rehearsal for that game as the locals will host Belmont in the league. With these two teams currently filling the top two places, the hosts could take a huge leap towards retaining their league title if they could defeat their nearest rivals. This game starts at 2pm.