Division One Cup Final
Spa GC 65, Marina 28
The first trophy of the season went to the hot favourites from Spa GC in what was very much a one-sided affair against a Marina side who were missing a couple of regular players.
First up was the singles match-up between Paul McNamara and James Wilson on mat one. It was a heavy mat, and it took both players a couple of ends to get the weight of it. After Paul scored three shots on the first end, the game settled down, with both playing good bowls to keep the score close. In fact, both would win five ends each, but it would be Paul who would come out on top with a 9-5 win.
The pairs game on mat two would prove to be the closest of the contest, and in the end, there would be nothing to separate Derek McCann and Robin Horner from Isobel Cunningham and Billy Collom, with a 6-6 draw the outcome. Once again, this game saw the heads changing on a regular basis, with the draw a fair result.
On mat three, the Spa triple of Martin Foreman, Graham, and Peter Christie, after losing three shots on end one, never looked back, and they scored steadily over the remaining ends to finish as 15-4 winners, with the help of a four and three 3s over the Marina trio of Pauline Russell, Roy McKibben, and Bridget Smith.
The second singles game saw the ends once again shared between Davy Vance and James Haugh, but the difference was James being reduced to scoring single shots, while Davy had scores of three, two, two, two, and four to win 13-5.
The Spa pair of Cyril Cromie and Alan Laughlin were also keeping their opponents, Gillian Wilson and Henry McDowell, to single shots from four ends and in reply would score two 3s along the way in their 11-4 win.
The last game on the mats featured the rinks of Davy Cavan, Artie Rice, Linda Vance, and Adam Gilmour from Spa, who were up against Andrew Wilson, Wilfred and Ian Graham, with Joey Chambers. After the singles and pairs games were finished, the Marina rink decided to shake hands and concede the match, with the score at 11-4 to Spa.
Artie Rice received the trophy from Lecale Indoor Bowling League Secretary Babs Bassett. Many thanks to Drumaroad for the use of their excellent facilities in hosting this final.
In the full article read the report from the Division Two final in which St Michael’s beat Loughinisland.
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