Seniors come out on top in nail-biting Irish Cup ‘derby’

This was always going to be a tight game as both teams had made good starts to the 
2013.

The home team started well and after 6 ends they had established a 15 shot lead but Ballymena are made of sterner stuff these days and they gradually played themselves back in to the game after 14 ends or so the game was 
level.

The games between Kyle v Talbot and Baker v Nutt remained quite close right up to the end of the match however Nigel Robinson’s rink were well up against Hall but Coleman was well down against Booth.

The closing ends saw Robinson’s rink continue to put the Old Bleach rink to the sword and this along with a fight back from Coleman was good enough to see the Braid men through.

On rink 1 James Gaston, Graham Wilson, Steven Falls and Nigel Robinson were level at 6-6 against S Hall after 6 ends, however the game changed on the next end when the Ballymena skip played an excellent bowl to claim 2 shots.

Over the next 7 ends the Ballymena men increased their lead to 6 shots with the Ballymena ‘back end’ playing some very telling bowls.

The Braid men hit a purple patch over the remaining 8 ends as they picked up 3 counts of 5 shots, a ‘3’ and a single to claim an emphatic 33-12 victory.

Steven Shields, Sammy Allen, Andrew Morrison and Andrew Kyle made a slow start against J Talbot on rink 2 and with 6 ends they trailed by 7 shots.

The next 9 ends were dominated by the visitors who won 7 of the ends to lead by 13 shots to 11. Unfortunately for the Braid men they got stuck on 13 shots and the home rink won the remaining end to claim victory by 21 shots to 13.

After 10 ends there was nothing to separate Andrew Bonnar, David Duncan, Mark Torrington and Jim Baker and the Old Bleach rink skipped by M Nutt with the scoreboard reading 8-8.

The game was still level at 15-15 after 15 ends and 2 ends later the Old Bleach rink held a 2 shot lead.

The Ballymena rink however were not to be beaten and with Baker playing some vintage bowls the Braid men scored 6 shots over the final end to win by 21 shots to 17.

JR Nicholl, Jimmy Hodges, Alistair Coleman and Steven Coleman had a real struggle on rink 4 against N Booth.

The Ballymena men did not find the green to their liking and could only win 5 of the first 18 ends and at this stage of the game they trailed by 25 shots to 6.

In the overall context of the game it was important that the Ballymena rink stopped the rot and to their credit they dug deep and with the help of a count of 3 shots on the 19th end and 4 more shots on the penultimate end they ended up on the wrong side of a 26-13 score line but they had done their bit to make sure that it was the name of Ballymena in the next round of the Cup.

Ballymena Seniors travel to Willowfield tonight (Tuesday) in the NIPGL Senior League however they have no match on Saturday.