Ballycruttle make hot favourites Spa fight for win in cup

29 November 2023

BALLYCRUTTLE..............35

SPA GC.............................38

THE bowlers from Spa made the trip to Ballycruttle as hot favourites to progress to the semi-final of the the Lecale Cup and although they did end up winning, they were made to sweat until the very end as the home side put on a great display to just narrowly lose out.

The visitors did start the best with wins for Don McNamara, 8-4 over Clare Tumelty, and Adam Gilmour, a much closer 5-4 against Sean Magee.

The home rink of Ann Savage, Teresa Powell, Jonny Craig and Nathan Tumelty really got the better of the Gilmour four with three high-scoring ends to finish winners by 11-5.

Meanwhile, over on the other mat, Spa’s Artie Rice, Davy Vance, Graham and Peter Christie won just two ends in their game against Clare Tumelty but a count of five shots on the third end managed to carry them to a 7-6 win.

Going into the final two games nothing could separate the sides as they were locked at 25 shots each.

With only the final ends to play on both mats there was only a single shot in the match in favour of the visitors with the Christie rink holding an 8-4 advantage over Sean Magee and Don McNamara 6-3 down against Nathan Tumelty.

Despite all the efforts of the home rinks, Spa secured single shots on the final ends to reach their place in the semi-final.

All in all, this was a great match with Division 2’s Ballycruttle really pushing last season’s Division 1 champions all the way.

Spa now travel to arch rivals St Mary’s in the semi-final in what should be another cracking match.

DRUMAROAD..................34

MARINA...........................41

THIS was another close match between sides in different divisions with the visitors just claiming a seven shot victory.

Dessie O’Neil and his home rink of Teresa Rogan, Malachy Murray and Adrian Mussen had a single shot win over Jim McConnell, while on the other mat the visiting rink of Gillian and Heather Wilson, John Haugh and Norman Gordon hit back with a 7-5 win against Kevin Walsh.

On the next run, another keenly fought game was won on the last end 5-4 to Harry Addis over Henry McDowell.

The change in the overall would happen on the other mat as Norman Gordon secured his double win with a 10-6 win to put the away side four shots up going into the final games.

This would be added to with an 8-3 win for Henry McDowell and much as Kevin Walsh and his rink of Bernie Mulvenna, Collie Brown and Brendan Scullion could do, they just came up short, winning by 8-6 against the away McConnell four.

This sets up another away fixture for Marina in the semi-final as they make the trip to face a Loughinisland side who received a walk-over in their match against Seaforde YFC.

ST MARY’S.......................51

ST MICHAEL’S.................37

THIS was the only all Division 1 tie and it was the home side who took full advantage of their home mats to see off a good St Michael’s side, who were, for long periods of the match, going toe to toe with the league leaders.

It was a strong start for the home side as Sam Simpson, Tommy Patterson, Tony Ward and Meghan McCabe won a high scoring game

11-7 against Gary Glavin and Donna Raybould, Philip Woodside, Kieran McMullan and Ricky Cathcart; also having an 11-6 win after ping a count of 5 shots on the first end.

Jeniffer McClure and her rink of John Kelly, Stephen Boden and Pauline McCormick recorded the only win for the away side as they won 9-5 over Neil Brown.

The McCabe rink doubled up with another win of 10-5 against Jim Walsh which meant St Mary’s would go into the last games with a ten-shot advantage.

Ricky Cathcart needed a three on his last end to draw 6-6 with Jim Walsh while Neil Brown made up for the earlier loss with an 8-4 win to set up a semi-final tie against Spa GC.

Cup semi-final fixtures: Loughinisland v Marina, St Mary’s v Spa GC.

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