(From Armagh Zone on Facebook)
Congratulations to both Armagh Ladies and Mens teams today on winning the Charity Zone Event against West Down Zone.
The ladies kicked off the action in Loughbrickland Presbyterian Church Hall with Catherine McMillen's rink taking on West Downs Lynn Martin on mat 1. Catherine and her rink of Margaret Dempster, Linda Milligan and Hilary Agnew all played excellent bowls to race off to an early lead and never looked back and eventually won 13-4.
Mat 2 saw Agnes Crozier, Sophia Minish, Leslie Strain and Elizabeth Smyth meeting the ever dangerous Angela Cannaway. After 9 ends nothing could separate the 2 rinks but Angela managed to lift a count of 3 on the last end to give the West Down rink a 11-8 win.
On Mat 3 Rachel Cassells and her rink Diane Bell, Rosemary Beattie and Sandra Whittle eased their way to a 11-4 victory over Patricia Martins rink.
At the half way stage Armagh were leading 32-19
Christina Breen, Ann Patton, Daphne Marshall and Pauline Beattie all played excellent bowls and stormed their way to a 17-4 win over the experienced Bernie Conlan.
Flo McNally and her rink Ann Crozier, Greta Garvey, Jean Hawthorne had a slow start against Ann Poland, but after a count of 6, Flo never looked backed and ran out 15-7 winners.
Marlene Hobson, Michelle Wright, May Cassells and Diane Agnew had a tight encounter with Evelyn Robb. The ever reliable Armagh foursome played well throughout and came away with a 9-5 win.
Final Score West Down 35-73 Armagh
It was a great performance on the day by Armagh Ladies and they once again retained the 'Ivan Marshall Memorial Cup' for the fourth consecutive year.
The men took centre stage next with Armagh looking to regain the 'Michael Catney Memorial Cup' which they narrowly lost out on last year.
The returning Martin Trainor and his team mates Pat Garvey, Stevie McCall and David Beattie had a great game with West Downs Robert Kidd. Nothing could split the two rinks after 10 ends with the game ending up in a 10 all draw.
Paul Whittle, Colin Deering, Terry Mulholland and Mark Sproule came up against West Downs Cecil Dillion. Mark's rink fought hard and eventually came away with a 6 shot victory 14-9.
Eddie Campbell's West Down rink came up against Aidan Corrigan and his rink William Gilpin, Sean Breen and Kieran Trainor. Again there wasn't much separating these two rinks but Aidan managed to seal 10-6 win after 10 ends.
At the halfway stage Armagh had their noses in front with a 9 shot lead 34-25.
The second half got underway with Paul Moffett, Nigel Uprichard, Gary Culbert and Alan Roberts taking on John Martin. The Armagh rink stormed off to a 6-0 lead and after a mini fight back from West Down, Alan guided his rink to a 9-5 victory.
Chris Trainor, George Crothers, Jal Richardson and Andrew Leckey found tough opposition in West Downs Johnny Wilson. The Armagh rink fought hard throughout but found themselves 2 down going into the last end. The Armagh rink were lying 2 for the draw with only Johnny's last bowl to come. The West Down skip played the perfect running shot to give him a 11-7 win over the Armagh rink.
The final game of the day was between Armagh's Jim Hendren, Chris Mulholland, Raymond Hunter and Joe Beattie who faced Alan Johnston and his rink. Joe's rink started off well and were leading 5-3 after 4 ends, then a count of 7 on the 5th end for the Armagh foursome gave the Armagh rink the breathing space they needed and they eased to a 14-9 victory.
Final Score West Down 50-64 Armagh
After a great days bowling, a cheque was presented to the Marie Currie Cancer Nurses Charity for a grand total of £2400. A big thank you must go out to all players and non players who raised this fabulous amount for a very worthy cause.
