ARDS Bowling Club’s B team had the chance to make history when they faced Ierne from Dublin in the last 16 of the prestigious Irish Junior Cup.
They had never made it to the quarter-final stage of the competition but their form this season suggested that this might just be their year.
After the first five ends, Ards B were ahead by five shots on the scoreboard but were leading on only one rink. Peter Thompson’s rink of David Gardiner, Samuel Hollinger and Robert Lightbody picked up a maximum count of eight shots on the second end to move into a 10-shot lead. The remaining matches were low scoring affairs with all rinks separated by just one or two shots.
By the 10th end, Ierne had taken the lead by 31 shots to 29 and the match was now becoming a dogfight. Thompson’s rink had failed to score during the second quarter of the match with the Ierne rink skipped by D Moray staging a great comeback to reduce the deficit to just a shot.
Out on rink five, Noel Morrison was involved in a dour struggle with Ierne’s F Rafferty and, with just 12 shots scored over 10 ends, a share of the spoils at six shots each was a fair reflection of the match. Craig Robson’s rink had scored on four consecutive ends to edge ahead by 8-7 but John Patterson was trailing by four shots in another match in which only 12 shots had been scored over the first half of the game.
The third quarter of the match saw a massive swing in fortunes as Ards B took a significant lead by 57 shots to 38. All rinks contributed to this potential match winning position but none more so than Alec Robson’s rink of Colin Ritchie, George Davis and Eric Gwynne. They had kept their opponents scoreless but managed to pick up 12 shots of their own. Morrison and Patterson were now leading by three shots and one shot respectively and with Thompson sitting at all square, the quarter-final beckoned for Ards.
At no point over the last six ends did Ierne eat into the Ards B lead by more than three or four shots with Ards emerging deserved winners by 79 shots to 59. Morrison and Patterson both finished two shots in arrears but this was easily covered by the other two rinks. After holding off a determined Ierne fightback, Thompson’s rink was happy to settle for a four-shot victory.
Robson’s rink’s massive win by 28 shots to eight was no more than they deserved as they completely out bowled their opposition. Their total dominance is best illustrated by how they restricted the Ierne rink skipped by D Kerr to just one shot between the sixth and 21st ends.
The reward for a well deserved victory is a trip to Coleraine to face Brookgreen. Little is known about them but at this stage of the Irish Junior Cup there is no such thing as an easy match.
