Dunbarton set up a semi against Old Bleach

Dunbarton have set up a Private Greens Senior Cup semi-final showdown with Old Bleach at the end of July.
Gary McElroy was part of the victorious rink two last week. INBL1626-268PBGary McElroy was part of the victorious rink two last week. INBL1626-268PB
Gary McElroy was part of the victorious rink two last week. INBL1626-268PB

They did it by seeing off Pickie in Bangor last Thursday.

Dunbarton came out with a 38 shot victory (98-60) on what was a very difficult green. The match was delayed for half an hour by heavy rain but that didn’t put off the visitors.

On rink one for Dunbarton, Jack Moffett, Kieran Trainor, Alan Paul and Martin Trainor came up against Pickie skip Marty Caughey for the second time in a matter of days.

Despite an opening score of three shots, Trainor’s rink found themselves 4-8 adrift at five ends and fell further behind at tens ends with the score 8-15 in favour of Pickie. But the locals turned in an outstanding second half to the game when they won every end to the finish, culminating in a full house EIGHT shots on the final end to run out 29-16 winners.

In another match up that repeated itself from the league fixture, rink two saw Chris Trainor, Michael Merritt, Gary McElroy and Conor McCartan play Peter Campbell. For the majority of this game the score line was close as both rinks battled throughout the 21 ends.

At five ends Conor and his rink were 6-8 behind and by the half-way stage were 10-11 behind. A count of three shots on end 13 seen them draw level and a further count of four shots on the 19th end saw them across the line with a 22-18 win.

On rink three, Dunbarton’s David Copeland, Stevie Adamson, Peter Convery and Derick Wilson faced the challenge of Neil Belch.

As with Conor’s rink on number two, this was a close game that could have gone either way. Level at 4-4 at five ends,

Wilson’s four held a slender advantage at 10 (8-7) and 15 (13-12) ends. Counts of three and five shots on ends 16 and 19 were crucial in their 22-18 win.

Myles Greenfield, along with James Kelly, Tony Bell and Andy Hughes on rink four were drew against skip Don Mills.

The Dunbarton four certainly settled into their rhythm quickly and were 8-2 ahead at five ends and extended that lead despite the short break in play and were 14-3 ahead at the halfway point.

Losing only another two ends across the second half of the game, they were comfortable 25-8 winners.