Armagh ladies coasted into the quarter finals of this season's Interzone competition with a 42 shot victory over South Belfast. Rink scores were as follows (Armagh skips first):
D Marshall 15 v 6 L McFadden
C McMillen 14 v 14 M Wilson
M Cassells 14 v 3 E Spratt
B Malone 17 v 1 A Witsitt
P Beattie 12 v 8 M Gilmore
F McNally 8 v 6 E Bruce
Total Score Armagh 80 v 38 South Belfast
Other scores
Oriel 57 v 44 Foyle
South Tyrone 63 v 49 East Antrim
Mid Ulster 53 v 43 Monaghan
West Down 48 v 46 Northern
Western 72 v 35 Lisburn
Armagh will now face Oriel at home
Saturday 29 November 2008
Thursday 27 November 2008
Congratulations Pauline and Joe
Many congratulations to Pauline and Joe who finally "tied the knot" today. As can be seen below the happy couple couldn't leave the bowls behind! All the best to Pauline and Joe and may you have many happy years (and tournament wins) together.
Sunday 23 November 2008
Irish Club Championship update
Cranagill have reached the semi final of the Irish Club Championships. The first stage of the Championships took place in Ballymoney Stadium on Sat 22 Nov. Armagh Zone were represented by St. Anthony's and Cranagill. The format was 8 groups of 4 teams with the group winners progressing to the quarter finals. Semi Finals and Final will be played next week. In the round robin group stages, St Anthony's were drawn with Spa GC from Mid Down zone, Monaghan club Clontibret and Oriel zone's Carrickmacross. The Craigavon club started well beating Spa GC by 5 shots, but then went down by 15 against Clontibret who had beaten Carrickmacross by 5 shots in their first game. In the last games of the group Spa GC beat Clontibret by 3 and St Anthony's beat Carrickmacross by 7, meaning St. Anthony's finished level on points with Clontibret but agonisingly missed out on a place in the quarter final on shot difference.
Cranagill were drawn with Conlig from North Down, St. Joseph's from Western zone and Rosslea. The locals started off with a 7 shot win against Conlig, and then followed this up with a narrow 1 shot win against St Josephs. A 3 shot win in their final game against Rosslea saw them top the group unbeaten and qualify for the quarter finals where they faced All Saints Tullylish. It was Ian Perry's rink that done the damage in this game beating Richard Martin's four 13-3. Andrew Hughes' four went down 9-6 to Johnny Wilson's rink and Terry Mulholland was beaten 9-5 by Tullylish's Andrew Leckey, but overall Cranagill had done enough for a 3 shot win and a place in the semi finals.
The other 3 semi finalists are St. Mary's Newcastle, Cookstown Pariochial and Clontibret.
Cranagill were drawn with Conlig from North Down, St. Joseph's from Western zone and Rosslea. The locals started off with a 7 shot win against Conlig, and then followed this up with a narrow 1 shot win against St Josephs. A 3 shot win in their final game against Rosslea saw them top the group unbeaten and qualify for the quarter finals where they faced All Saints Tullylish. It was Ian Perry's rink that done the damage in this game beating Richard Martin's four 13-3. Andrew Hughes' four went down 9-6 to Johnny Wilson's rink and Terry Mulholland was beaten 9-5 by Tullylish's Andrew Leckey, but overall Cranagill had done enough for a 3 shot win and a place in the semi finals.
The other 3 semi finalists are St. Mary's Newcastle, Cookstown Pariochial and Clontibret.
Saturday 15 November 2008
Ireland win British Isles Championship... but only just!
Ireland, with the help of Pauline Cassells and Marty Trainor, have retained the British Isles Championship, but it took a last bowl victory over Wales in the final match to secure the overall win. It's obvious that the other home nations, Wales in particular, are starting to bridge the gap between themselves and Ireland. Indeed Ireland only won 2 of the 4 individual competitions (pairs and singles), with Wales winning the triples and fours.
Saturday's team game scores will follow in due course.
Saturday's team game scores will follow in due course.
Thursday 13 November 2008
St Matthew's lose valued member
St Matthew's Richhill have suffered a sad loss with the passing of Pauline Leeman on Wed 12 November. Pauline was a familiar friendly face around the zone and played for a number of years on the ladies zone team.
Our condolences go to Richhill club and Pauline's family circle at this sad time.
Our condolences go to Richhill club and Pauline's family circle at this sad time.
Wednesday 12 November 2008
Men win thriller
Armagh 53 v Western 52
Report from IIBA Website
A game that promised so much between two teams who have genuine hopes of lifting the Boomer cup come March certainly didn’t disappoint. Armagh had strengthened their line-up from last year’s semi final defeat against West Down. Western had much to prove after suffering two demoralising defeats to unheralded Foyle and Monaghan last season. What transpired proved to be a game that would have graced the final itself, with both sides going full tilt for the early supremacy and a place in the next round.
Armagh started brightly with the rinks skipped by Alan Roberts & Danny McDonalds racing into 3-1 & 4-0 leads respectively. International Skip Gary Burke reaffirmed his status within the game with four perfect deliveries in the opening two ends for a 4-0 advantage to stem the tide. Andy Leckey in his debut at skip for Armagh fought back in the next end to half the deficit but it was very much a baptism of fire for the St Marks player as the visiting rink continued to expose the Armagh front three, leaving Andy with the thankless task of trying to contain the rampant Western four. Gary continued to impress and removed Andy’s bowl for a count of 5 to extend his lead to 9-2 (4 ends). Western were visibly lifted and Paul Wilson & Trevor Morrison raised their performance levels to help the visitors to a 4 shot lead after 5 ends. The Morrison rink sustained the onslaught and stole the initiative from the ever impressive Armagh rink to lead 9-6 (9 ends) a feat few have achieved in the past 3 seasons. Armagh were beginning to rock after Gary Burke added another count of 4 to extend his lead to 13-4 and in turn a 9 shot lead for Western. Armagh could see the game slipping away from them and responded with the character that has been lacking from their games in previous seasons. Sean Conroy (Snr) was in superb form for Armagh, bursting into life in ends 7,8,9 running the jack to the ditch twice, turning a toucher onto the face of the jack, followed up with a fine draw around the head finishing millimetres from the ditch to help his colleges to scores of 2,3,&1 and a 10-3 lead.
The final end of the first period started with the sides locked together on 25 shots each. Armagh looked set for a half time lead with Roberts gaining two shots, Leckey lying 3 and McDonald looking good for second. Wilson & Burke had other ideas and conspired to leave Armagh reeling at the interval, Wilson decided he could find a path to Danny’s second shot and removed it for a count of 5. Not to be outdone Gary Burke capped a marvellous performance by delivering his last delivery down the edge of the mat with perfect weight to finish inches from the ditch line and give Western a four shot lead at the break.
Armagh 27 v 31 Western (Half Time)
After the interval Western continued to put the home side under intense pressure and with 2 ends played the visitors had once again extended their lead to 9 shots and seemed to be turning the screw on Armagh. Joe Beattie’s rink which included D. Wright returning to the fold led the revival with a run of 3,3,2&1 to lead 10-3. Andrew Hughes and his rink also brought their ‘A’ game to the table and always looked in control of the game against D Graham and cruised into a 5-1 lead at the half way point. Western however still had the overall lead by two shots as Marty Trainor came up against a very powerful Western rink which included 2007 International Norman Noble at second who was inflicting most of the damage as Marty found himself on the wrong end of a 9-0 scoreline after 6 ends.
With 5 individual ends remaining the game was to take a dramatic twist. Western were in front overall by two shots and had built a match winning position with each Armagh skip having one bowl to play. Joe Beattie found himself 2 down with little hope of converting the head, to his credit he hit the head perfectly and lady luck smiled as Armagh claimed the shot for a deserved 12-5 victory. It seemed to be in vain with the Western supporters in full voice as victory seemed certain. A Hughes had 3 against, Marty Trainor had 4 against and John McVitty had played the perfect blocking shot 18 inches short of the head to leave the International Skip with no shot. Marty disagreed and decided to drive the short bowl onto the jack for two shots to Armagh, the normally cool headed St Anthony’s player responded with a ferocious roar to the heaven’s and it was ‘game on’ once again. With Beattie & Trainor both converting their respective heads the pressure was put firmly on Hughes shoulders to keep the match alive and he did just that in some style running the bare jack into the ditch for the shot giving Armagh a slender 1 shot lead. These 3 bowls produced a 13 shot swing in Armagh’s favour and clearly had Western rattled. Jack Moffett & Chris Mulholland did little to lift the opposition’s gloom running the jack to the ditch to ensure the home side had a 3 shot lead to defend with one end left to play.
Victory should have been secured at this point but Ivor Armstrong & Norman Noble had outplayed their counterparts for the previous 9 ends and the last was to be no different as they continued to decorate the jack. Trainor went to the head with the match against, another accurate drive sent the home support into raptures after claiming the shot however John McVitty ensured the drama continued with an excellent drive to burn the end. The replayed end proved to be just as dramatic as Western once again played the better bowls to hold 4 shots. Paul Moore was unlucky to get a poor result from a drive to leave only one Armagh bowl in the head as Western looked set to steal the victory. To the delight of the home support Trainor made both bowls count to contain McVitty to two shots and Armagh fell over the line for a 53-52 victory and a place in the next round of the inter-zone.
Armagh showed the type of character that will be needed if they are to lift the Boomer cup this season, but the manner of defeat for the Leckey & Trainor rinks will be a worry for the selectors. More attacking power is needed in the front ends of modern day inter-zone games especially in the second half. The Armagh back-end of Moore and Trainor were constantly put under pressure by the excellent Western duo of Armstrong and Noble. On another day the scoreline could have been significantly in favour of the Western four.
However on a day of high drama Armagh sneaked through but it is the game of bowls that was the real winner.
Mat 1; P Garvey, S Conroy (Snr), S Conroy (Jnr), D McDonald 10-8 J Brennan, I McElroy, T Cathcart, P Wilson
Mat 2 ; P Wilson, K Trainor, G Culbert, A Roberts 8-9 R Graham, B Collins, K Bradshaw, T Morrison
Mat 3; I Irwin, N Uprichard, C Leckey, A Leckey 9-14 A Brown, D Gilliland, W Knox, G Burke
Mat 4; J Moffett, C Mulholland, I Perry, A Hughes 10-4 H Nixon, R Nixon, A Graham, D Graham
Mat 5; C Donaldson, K McConville, P Moore, M Trainor 4-12 I Armstrong, N Noble, H Gawley, J McVitty
Mat 6; L McCarten, C Beattie, D Wright, J Beattie 12-5 D Ferguson, N Cox, J McCaffrey, J Morris
Report from IIBA Website
A game that promised so much between two teams who have genuine hopes of lifting the Boomer cup come March certainly didn’t disappoint. Armagh had strengthened their line-up from last year’s semi final defeat against West Down. Western had much to prove after suffering two demoralising defeats to unheralded Foyle and Monaghan last season. What transpired proved to be a game that would have graced the final itself, with both sides going full tilt for the early supremacy and a place in the next round.
Armagh started brightly with the rinks skipped by Alan Roberts & Danny McDonalds racing into 3-1 & 4-0 leads respectively. International Skip Gary Burke reaffirmed his status within the game with four perfect deliveries in the opening two ends for a 4-0 advantage to stem the tide. Andy Leckey in his debut at skip for Armagh fought back in the next end to half the deficit but it was very much a baptism of fire for the St Marks player as the visiting rink continued to expose the Armagh front three, leaving Andy with the thankless task of trying to contain the rampant Western four. Gary continued to impress and removed Andy’s bowl for a count of 5 to extend his lead to 9-2 (4 ends). Western were visibly lifted and Paul Wilson & Trevor Morrison raised their performance levels to help the visitors to a 4 shot lead after 5 ends. The Morrison rink sustained the onslaught and stole the initiative from the ever impressive Armagh rink to lead 9-6 (9 ends) a feat few have achieved in the past 3 seasons. Armagh were beginning to rock after Gary Burke added another count of 4 to extend his lead to 13-4 and in turn a 9 shot lead for Western. Armagh could see the game slipping away from them and responded with the character that has been lacking from their games in previous seasons. Sean Conroy (Snr) was in superb form for Armagh, bursting into life in ends 7,8,9 running the jack to the ditch twice, turning a toucher onto the face of the jack, followed up with a fine draw around the head finishing millimetres from the ditch to help his colleges to scores of 2,3,&1 and a 10-3 lead.
The final end of the first period started with the sides locked together on 25 shots each. Armagh looked set for a half time lead with Roberts gaining two shots, Leckey lying 3 and McDonald looking good for second. Wilson & Burke had other ideas and conspired to leave Armagh reeling at the interval, Wilson decided he could find a path to Danny’s second shot and removed it for a count of 5. Not to be outdone Gary Burke capped a marvellous performance by delivering his last delivery down the edge of the mat with perfect weight to finish inches from the ditch line and give Western a four shot lead at the break.
Armagh 27 v 31 Western (Half Time)
After the interval Western continued to put the home side under intense pressure and with 2 ends played the visitors had once again extended their lead to 9 shots and seemed to be turning the screw on Armagh. Joe Beattie’s rink which included D. Wright returning to the fold led the revival with a run of 3,3,2&1 to lead 10-3. Andrew Hughes and his rink also brought their ‘A’ game to the table and always looked in control of the game against D Graham and cruised into a 5-1 lead at the half way point. Western however still had the overall lead by two shots as Marty Trainor came up against a very powerful Western rink which included 2007 International Norman Noble at second who was inflicting most of the damage as Marty found himself on the wrong end of a 9-0 scoreline after 6 ends.
With 5 individual ends remaining the game was to take a dramatic twist. Western were in front overall by two shots and had built a match winning position with each Armagh skip having one bowl to play. Joe Beattie found himself 2 down with little hope of converting the head, to his credit he hit the head perfectly and lady luck smiled as Armagh claimed the shot for a deserved 12-5 victory. It seemed to be in vain with the Western supporters in full voice as victory seemed certain. A Hughes had 3 against, Marty Trainor had 4 against and John McVitty had played the perfect blocking shot 18 inches short of the head to leave the International Skip with no shot. Marty disagreed and decided to drive the short bowl onto the jack for two shots to Armagh, the normally cool headed St Anthony’s player responded with a ferocious roar to the heaven’s and it was ‘game on’ once again. With Beattie & Trainor both converting their respective heads the pressure was put firmly on Hughes shoulders to keep the match alive and he did just that in some style running the bare jack into the ditch for the shot giving Armagh a slender 1 shot lead. These 3 bowls produced a 13 shot swing in Armagh’s favour and clearly had Western rattled. Jack Moffett & Chris Mulholland did little to lift the opposition’s gloom running the jack to the ditch to ensure the home side had a 3 shot lead to defend with one end left to play.
Victory should have been secured at this point but Ivor Armstrong & Norman Noble had outplayed their counterparts for the previous 9 ends and the last was to be no different as they continued to decorate the jack. Trainor went to the head with the match against, another accurate drive sent the home support into raptures after claiming the shot however John McVitty ensured the drama continued with an excellent drive to burn the end. The replayed end proved to be just as dramatic as Western once again played the better bowls to hold 4 shots. Paul Moore was unlucky to get a poor result from a drive to leave only one Armagh bowl in the head as Western looked set to steal the victory. To the delight of the home support Trainor made both bowls count to contain McVitty to two shots and Armagh fell over the line for a 53-52 victory and a place in the next round of the inter-zone.
Armagh showed the type of character that will be needed if they are to lift the Boomer cup this season, but the manner of defeat for the Leckey & Trainor rinks will be a worry for the selectors. More attacking power is needed in the front ends of modern day inter-zone games especially in the second half. The Armagh back-end of Moore and Trainor were constantly put under pressure by the excellent Western duo of Armstrong and Noble. On another day the scoreline could have been significantly in favour of the Western four.
However on a day of high drama Armagh sneaked through but it is the game of bowls that was the real winner.
Mat 1; P Garvey, S Conroy (Snr), S Conroy (Jnr), D McDonald 10-8 J Brennan, I McElroy, T Cathcart, P Wilson
Mat 2 ; P Wilson, K Trainor, G Culbert, A Roberts 8-9 R Graham, B Collins, K Bradshaw, T Morrison
Mat 3; I Irwin, N Uprichard, C Leckey, A Leckey 9-14 A Brown, D Gilliland, W Knox, G Burke
Mat 4; J Moffett, C Mulholland, I Perry, A Hughes 10-4 H Nixon, R Nixon, A Graham, D Graham
Mat 5; C Donaldson, K McConville, P Moore, M Trainor 4-12 I Armstrong, N Noble, H Gawley, J McVitty
Mat 6; L McCarten, C Beattie, D Wright, J Beattie 12-5 D Ferguson, N Cox, J McCaffrey, J Morris
British Isles Championships
Just a reminder that Pauline Cassells and Martin Trainor will be playing for Ireland in the British Isles Championships in Coleraine Leisure Centre on Fri 14th and Sat 15th November. Martin is skipping a rink, while Pauline is playing third to Western player Gary Burke.
So if you're doing nothing at the weekend, I'm sure they'd welcome your support!
Click here for the full team.
So if you're doing nothing at the weekend, I'm sure they'd welcome your support!
Click here for the full team.
Sunday 9 November 2008
St John's Moira tournament result
Pauline Cassells and Joe Beattie have won this years St John's Moira pairs tournament. Results from the Finals night are as follows:
Prelim
M Trainor (St Anthonys) v J Moffett (Crannagill)
G Doherty (Coalisland) v R Hoy (Killbride)
Quarter Final
M Trainor (St Anthonys)v R Hoy (Killbride)
J Beattie (St Marks)v L Murray (St Michael's Dundrum)
A Corrigan (St Marys Newcastle) v B Martin (St John's Moira)
D Malcolmson (Ballydougan)v J McCandless (Eglintine)
Semi Final
M Trainor 8 v 9 J Beattie
A Corrigan 7 v 6 J McCandless
Final
J Beattie 12 v 5 A Corrigan
Prelim
M Trainor (St Anthonys) v J Moffett (Crannagill)
G Doherty (Coalisland) v R Hoy (Killbride)
Quarter Final
M Trainor (St Anthonys)v R Hoy (Killbride)
J Beattie (St Marks)v L Murray (St Michael's Dundrum)
A Corrigan (St Marys Newcastle) v B Martin (St John's Moira)
D Malcolmson (Ballydougan)v J McCandless (Eglintine)
Semi Final
M Trainor 8 v 9 J Beattie
A Corrigan 7 v 6 J McCandless
Final
J Beattie 12 v 5 A Corrigan
Saturday 8 November 2008
Armagh GC back on top
There's been a lull in Fane Valley league games over the last week due to the National Championships, but as a result of the few games that were played, Armagh GC have gone to the top of Division 1 and Tandragee GC hauled themselves of the bottom of the league by beating Queen St at home.
Armagh GC destroyed former leaders Markethill restricting the visitors to a total of 14 shots across the 4 rinks. The 7 points collected brought their tally to 30 points from 6 games, 1 more than Markethill who have a game extra played. St Anthony's are in third with 28 points, but St. Saviours and Tullysaran are also well placed with 27 and 26½ points respectively and a game in hand on the leaders.
At the other end of the table, Tandragee GC got their second win of the season and condemned Queen St to their fifth sucessive league defeat. The 4½ points they got sees Tandragee leapfrog 4 teams and leave Mulavilly in bottom spot.
Division 2 is shaping up to be a 2 way fight between unbeated Drumgor and Portadown GC. Both teams have 6 games played and Drumgor hold a 1 point advantage. St Pat's Maralin are a distant third, 7 points adrift. St Paul's challenge has faded badly, now having lost 3 on the trot after winning their first 3 games.
Armagh GC destroyed former leaders Markethill restricting the visitors to a total of 14 shots across the 4 rinks. The 7 points collected brought their tally to 30 points from 6 games, 1 more than Markethill who have a game extra played. St Anthony's are in third with 28 points, but St. Saviours and Tullysaran are also well placed with 27 and 26½ points respectively and a game in hand on the leaders.
At the other end of the table, Tandragee GC got their second win of the season and condemned Queen St to their fifth sucessive league defeat. The 4½ points they got sees Tandragee leapfrog 4 teams and leave Mulavilly in bottom spot.
Division 2 is shaping up to be a 2 way fight between unbeated Drumgor and Portadown GC. Both teams have 6 games played and Drumgor hold a 1 point advantage. St Pat's Maralin are a distant third, 7 points adrift. St Paul's challenge has faded badly, now having lost 3 on the trot after winning their first 3 games.
Saturday 1 November 2008
Ladies cruise into round 2 of Interzone
Armagh ladies had a convincing 93-39 win over North Belfast in the first round on this seasons Interzone competition. All six rinks won. The match was over as a contest at half time with the locals 39 shots up and they didn't let up in the second half either adding an extra 13 shots to the winning margin. The ladies now play North Eastern zone in the next round.
For a full match report and details of a "hot shot" click here.
For a full match report and details of a "hot shot" click here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)