LURGAN B team are into the final of the NIBA Junior Cup after a dramatic win against strong favourites Whitehead in the semi-final at Finaghy last Wednesday afternoon.
In the final Lurgan will play Lisburn side Lisnagarvey on Friday, July 4, at Mu
sgrave Park, Belfast, with a 6pm start.
All four rinks in the semi-final under skips Brian Brown, Walter Cousins, Tony Haughey and Eamon Quinn stunned the Whitehead rinks by breaking into a surprise 24-9 lead after five ends and they continued to lead 35-29 at the halfway stage of a tensely fought game.
Whitehead managed to level the scores at 51-51 at the three quarter stage and in the final stages the Lurgan rinks under skips Tony Haughey and Walter Cousins finished with victories while Brian Brown’s rink drew with their opponents.
This left the last Lurgan rink under skip Eamon Quinn to battle out the crucial last end with the scoreline 72-71 in Whitehead’s favour.
The town’s third bowler, Melvyn Hamilton, played a magniificent last bowl to leave the score at 72-72 and it was down tro the two skips. Lurgan’s Eamon Quinn slotted in a great last bowl on the jack to give his side a 73-72 overall victory.
On rink one Lurgan’s Brian Brown, Derek Henderson, Vincent Devlin and Jack Duff picked up vital shots early on to go into an 8-2 lead.
The experienced Whitehead rink under skip B. Barclay made a comeback in the next six ends to go 14-9 in the lead.
The Lurgan foursome fought back to level the score at 15-15 with four ends remaining but with the score still in the balance across the green Whitehead looked like winning when they were 19-17 ahead and lying four shots.
Lurgan skip Brian Brown played his last two bowls to the jack to clinch two important shots and draw level at 19-19 leaving the overall match wide open.
Walter Cousins, Hugh Casey, Dan Dempsey and Ronnie McCullough on two made a fine recovery from 4-0 down to be level at 8-8 after eight ends. Then they had a successful run to go 17-11 ahead with only six ends remaining.
Although the Whitehead rink under skip B. Connor slipped in five shots on the next end to reduce the score to 17-16 Lurgan skip Walter Cousins helped his colleagues gain five more shots in a closely fought last quarter to win 22-19.
On three Tony Haughey, Neil Harvey, Bobby Walsh and Roy Poots made a splendid start to lead 6-1. In a great end to end battle against Whitehead skip D. Smith the Lurgan foursome were 13-10 ahead with five cends left.
The Whitehead rink made an all out challenge for high scoring shots but they were restricted to singles and doubles and the Lurgan four ran out narrow 16-15 winners.
Eamon Quinn, Melvyn Hamilton, Gareth Bunting and Bobby Liivingston on four surprised the Whitehead rink under skip M. Crooks to gain an early 7-2 advantage. Whitehead finally settled down to go 15-10 ahead with five ends left to play.
Both sides shared the next four ends and Whitehead led 19-14 with one end left.
The full article contains 566 words and appears in Lurgan Mail newspaper.
