Busy week of top class bowling finals in the Bushmills and District League

Tuesday, in the neutral venue of Toberdoney Hall, saw the Friendly Section Final between Trinity and Dunluce Parish, whose first half rinks started out strong from the start, holding and building the combined shots score the whole way through the first half to create an eight shot cushion.

However in the second half after the tea interval, it was Trinity who seemed to get a sugar boost and chipped away at the eight shot cushion, until at the midway point they had caught up and then turned the overall shots up score in their favour to win the Friendly Section Final 37-26.

Wednesday in Armoy Hall saw the Mid-Section Final between Ballywatt and Ramoan. These were two evenly matched teams and, at the third end, they had a combined score of Ballywatt 7 to Ramoan’s 6 shots. Then in the fourth end both the Ballywatt rinks scored well and held this to win the first half 21-17.

Ramoan started off strongly in the second half to make it 24-24 overall shots each in the third. The seventh end in bowls always seems to be crucial end to win and on mat 1 Ballywatt got a 2 and, in the other, it was a dead head which meant the two rinks in the second half had scored 10-10 each, which gave Ballywatt back its first half 4 shot cushion.

In the penultimate end Ramoan replied by building up a nice nest of bowls around the jack protected and tucked in behind a wall of front bowls which looked to put them in a game winning position, as the other mat had just finished. With one bowl to go and it looked like a case of trying to draw round the head just to cut down shots. The Ballywatt skip took a wide line and had the perfect weight and stopped in the perfect spot to get the shot which put the pressure back onto Ramoan again in the last end.

With the teams being so evenly matched teams it was this margin which put Ballywatt through to win by 37-30 and become the Bushmills and District Mid-Section Winners 2023-24.

On Thursday, it was off to Kilraughts Hall for the last team game of the 2023-2024 season, the Bushmills and District Charity Shield Final between Billy Parish and Toberdoney. It was Toberdoney who settled in well starting off strongly in the first half of the first half and built up a combined 44-14 first half lead.

In the second half Billy pulled back to win it with a score of 19 shots to 10 but, as with the night before, it was the first half cushion that gave Toberdoney the match’s overall score of 54 shots to 33 and making Toberdoney Bushmills and District Charity Shield Winners 2023-24.

The final week of team bowling turned out to be competitive, entertaining and friendly, and definitely as good and as any of the TV bowling tournaments. The Ladies Singles final will be held in Trinity on Monday, March 25 at 7.30pm and the Over 50’s Pairs and Juniors in Ramoan Parish on Thursday, April 4.