Victor and Joe give Merton’s men hope

It was the first leg of their second round match. Merton would like to have won two games out of the five played but that is easier said than done, especially over an unfamiliar course.

The games panned out as follows:

Dermot Magee and Merton McDowell lost 5 and 4.

Aidan Lavery and Robert Haire lost 2 holes down.

John Poots and Willie Dickson lost 6 and 4.

Gerry Blevins and Gavin Greer lost 7 and 5.

Victor McNeill and Joe Thompson won 2 up.

The second leg will be played at Banbridge next Sunday.

Senior Alliance

The opening round of the Mid-Ulster Senior Alliance was played at Downpatrick last Tuesday.

This competition is played over 10 rounds throughout the summer. It is important to get off to a good start.

The conditions at Downpatrick were far from easy. In fact, a hailstorm at one stage forced some players to abandon their round.

As expected, the home side fared best. Downpatrick’s four best cards totalled 145. Only three points separated the next four teams as Portadown had 133 points, Lisburn 132, Ardglass 132 and Banbridge 130.

Brian Mulholland and Andy Murphy were the top scorers for Banbridge with 34 points each. Seamus McGrath and Harry Shannon both had 31 points.

The other four players were John Redpath, John Poots, P.J. Johnston and Sam Wilkinson.

The second round will be played this week at Lurgan. Peter Hillen, Dennis Lockhart, Tony Ewbanks and John Parkes come onto the Banbridge team to replace the bottom four from round one.