Visitors too strong

Dun Laoghaire 96

In the third round of the IBA Junior Cup last Saturday Lurgan B met a strong Dun Laoghaire side and while they tried hard they were always up against a superior team which won by 26 shots.

The rink wins were evenly divided but in cup bowls matches only the overall score counts and that was the undoing for the home side which was behind at all stages with two of the rinks out-bowled by the visitors’ superb bowling.

Gordon Bell’s rink was 14–4 down after the ninth end but recovered well by winning all the ends, accept two, in the second half and collecting 17 shots. The opposition hit back on the last end to take four shots but it was not enough to catch Bell’s men who won the rink 21–20.

Bobby Jones’ rink worked hard to be all square at 8–8 after the eighth end and then took eight shots off the next two end to go into a convincing 16–8. Another three shot win on twelfth end, with another four-shot at the fifteenth end put Jones’ rink in an invincible position at 23-11. While the opposition won some of the remaining ends the home rink held on to win 26–19.

Dan Dempsey’s and Eamonn Quinn’s rinks were met with a bowling onslaught from the other Dun Laoghaire rinks to which they had virtually no answer with Dempsey’s rink losing 23–11 and Quinn’s rink losing 34–12.