Lurgan A top the table after derby win

Portadown 48 (1) Lurgan 74 (6)

Last Tuesday evening Lurgan travelled to Portadown to play a re-arranged league match in conditions not conducive to good bowling.

On a very tricky green Lurgan put up a combative performance and returned home with six points and a 26 shot victory.

Rink 1, skipped by Alan Roberts, as has been the case in most games this season, settled down early and built up a six shot lead after five ends. The rink kept up the pressure and extended their lead at the 15 end stage 5-16. Portadown pulled a few shots back over the remaining ends but the Lurgan rink ran out comfortable winners 17-7.

Ronan Cregan’s four on Rink 2 got off to a strong start for a change and led 3-7 after five ends. With a six and a four on the seventh and eighth ends, the rink moved into a winning position were 9-17 up at the halfway mark. A solid performance over the second half of the game saw the Lurgan four home by 27-14 - their best performance of the season to date.

John Gilliland’s four struggled on Rink 3 with the dreadful conditions and were in arrears by 7-1 after five ends. However, John was able to keep spirits high and restrained the Portadown rink well to only go down by six shots and 12-18. This helped the overall team score and it was good to see that they did not throw in the towel despite being down 16-4 after 12 ends.

Over on Rink 4 Sam McCombes got off to a good start and built up a 1-6 lead after six ends. A strong finish, collecting nine shots to one over the last five ends saw Sam’s rink home comfortably 18-9.

On a night when the rain never ceased it was great to see Lurgan come home with a win and a valuable six points which moves Lurgan to the top of League Division 2.

Rink 1: D McClune, D McCabrey, H Cosgrove, A Roberts 17-7

Rink 2: I Mitchell, J McCullough, A Briggs, R Cregan 27-14

Rink 3: N Hamilton, L Donaldson, P McGrail, J Gilliland 12-18

Rink 4: N Sloan, I Ferguson, P Dew, S McCombes 18-9