Trio of PGL titles for Ballymena bowlers

BALLYMENA Bowling Club was well represented in the finals of the Northern Ireland Private Greens League Championships which were held at Ulster Transport Bowling Club last Saturday.

The Ballymena Club were certain of at least 2 titles as two Ballymena Pairs and two Under 25 players had qualified for finals day.

Due to duplication the Open Pairs competition was played at 9.30 am and it was an all Ballymena affair between last year’s beaten finalists, Steven Shields and Jim Baker and the father and son combination of Alistair Coleman and Steven Coleman.

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The Baker/Shields combination started off the better and they gradually opened up a 7 shot lead but the Colemans levelled the game at 11-11 after 16 ends.

Unfortunately for the Colemans they were unable to kick on as Baker/Shields finished strongly to win by 25 shots to 11.

J R Nicholl, Stephen Coleman and Andrew Kyle made it through to the Open Triples competition where they took on the Ulster Transport triple skipped by W Johnston.

After 8 ends the Transport trio held a slender 1 shot lead and 3 ends later the lead was up to 4 but the Ballymena men dominated the remaining ends and they went on to record a fine 18-11 victory.

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Braid bowlers have dominated the Under 25 Singles competition in recent years and this year the trend continued as the final was contested between two of Ballymena’s young players, Alistair Coleman and the current holder of the Under 25’s title, Andi Duncan.

Coleman started off brightly to open up a 6-0 lead but over the next few ends Duncan settled down to reduce the margin to 4 shots with the score 12-8.

Coleman however was playing slightly the better bowls and over the remainder of the game he pulled away from Duncan to eventually go on and claim victory by 21 shots to 12.

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