Excellent league form continues with 52 shot win

The Dunbarton A team maintained their excellent league form with a convincing 52 shot win over mid table Pickie in Gilford last Tuesday.

This was a dominant performance by the locals who started strongly and never looked back. Andy Hughes and his front three simply blew away their rivals and won by a massive 32 shots. DJ Wilson also led his rink to a very comfortable 18 shot success. Conor McCartan had to battle hard before squeezing home by three shots. Unfortunately Gary McElroy’s four endured last end agony as they lost a single on the final end which was the difference in their game. Nonetheless, a fine six points.

Rink 1 – J Moffatt, C Mulholland, P Convery, DJ Wilson up 27-9

Inspired by a magnificent front end performance by Jack Moffatt and Chris Mulholland, DJ’s rink never looked in trouble throughout this game. On the first end, skip DJ removed the nearest Pickie bowl with his final delivery to leave the home rink lying a maximum eight shots with one bowl remaining. By the midpoint the home four led 10-5 and over the second half of the game put their foot on the accelerator, eventually winning by 18 shots.

Rink 2 C Trainor, M Merritt, G Moore, C McCartan up 25-22

This game swung to and fro and it was no surprise that it was decided on the last end. Over the first five ends, 14 shots were scored, 9 by Conor’s four but by the midpoint, the North Down bowlers had bounced back to level the scores at 11-11. Trailing by three shots with five ends to play, the hosts moved up a gear again and managed to poke their noses in front by two shots going into the final end. Thankfully the home rink held their nerve and aided by two fine deliveries by third Greg Moore, held on to score a single and a hard fought three shot success.

Rink 3 – D Copeland, T Bell, S Adamson, A Hughes up 37-5

This was as one sided a game as you will see as the excellent home quartet were simply much too good for their shellshocked rivals. From end one, all four bowlers drew close to the jack and the Pickie rink had no answer. With all four Gilford bowlers producing an exhibition of bowls, the locals finished in style scoring 1,2,1,4,1,4 to storm to a massive 32 shot win.

Rink 4 – R McElroy, C Mulholland, M Trainor, G McElroy down 18-19

Similarly to rink two, there was little to separate the two opposing rinks throughout the duration of this game and it was inevitable that this game was decided on the last end. On the final end, second John Magennis moved the jack off centre with a fine bowl and it was case of who could draw closest to the displaced jack. Unfortunately skip Gary’s final bowl finished one bowl short from counting shot and a disappointing one shot defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory.