Report by Pauline Cassells
Armagh Men put on an excellent display to retain the Charity Inter Zone title that they won last year in Ardboe. A few late withdrawals meant the team had to be changed slightly, but these changes did not affect the teams performance with some players playing very well in their new positions.
In the 1St game of the day, Armagh took on the current Men’s Inter Zone Champions North West. Armagh raced out to an early lead and at one point of the match they had a 22 shot lead. But to their credit North West fought back in the closing ends and got the deficit down to 2 shots. Armagh however were able to hang on and secured a further 3 shots to win by 5 shots overall.
Rink 1:-G Crothers, P Whittle, I Perry, A Hughes 10 J McKay 5
Rink 2:-L McCartan, D Beattie, A Leckey, J Beattie 9 N Logue 6
Rink 3:-M Catney, J Richardson, C Leckey, R Hunter 6 v I Watson 9
Rink 4:-C Donaldson, C Trainor, P Moore, M Trainor 12 v R O’Neill 10
Rink 5:-I Irwin, N Uprichard, C Mulholland, T Mulholland 8 v T McIntyre 9
Rink 6:-J Moffett, P Garvey, P Wilson, A Roberts 7 v Lee Harrison 8
OVERALL SCORE: ARMAGH 52 NORTH WEST 47
In the 2nd game of the day Mid Ulster faced North West. Mid Ulster took early control of this match and never looked like loosing wining 68-36.
In the final game of the day Armagh took on Mid Ulster both teams knowing that whoever won this game would be the Inter Zone Charity Champions.
Rink 1:- M Catney, J Richardson, P Wilson & A Roberts of Armagh played M Wilson’s rink. This game was hard fought with both sides playing well and finished up all square at 8-8.
Rink 2:- A Hughes’s rink took on Mid Ulster’s D McIlroy. Andrew’s rink played very well and with some excellent shots from the Armagh skip they were able to come out 11-8 winners.
Rink 3:- Another good display from Joe Beattie’s rink in the final game of the day enabled them to come out victors over L Conway of Mid Ulster winning 11-5.
Rink 4:- J Moffett, R Hunter, S Conroy & D McDonald of Armagh played Mid Ulster’s S Quinn. This was another close encounter. After 9 ends it was 5-5 but unfortunately for ‘Danny Boy’ Mid Ulster got 4 shots in the final end to win 9-5.
Rink 5:- M Trainor’s rink with new 3rd C Leckey played the experienced L McHugh of Mid Ulster. After Liam winning his 1st game 20-2 we new this game would be interesting!! Marty’s rink came out of the blocks on fire storming out to a 11-1 lead the highlight being a score of 7 on the fourth end. Liam however was not going to give up easily and fought back to tie the game 13-13 after 10 ends.
Rink 6:- T Mulholland’s Armagh rink played C McHugh of Mid Ulster on the final mat. This game was very tight throughout, but Colm’s rink were able to come out winners at 8-5.
After the dust had settled Armagh had retained their Inter Zone Charity title by beating Mid Ulster by 2 shots (53-51).
All money raised by Armagh on the day and will be added with the ladies competition next Saturday 11 Oct and the proceeds will be going to Macmillan Cancer.
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