Senior vs Ballymena

A glorious sunny day at Stormont set the scene for NICS to start their league campaign with a tough opener against Ballymena. The green was in good order with the pace more like June than April!

Rink 2 saw Jim Savage, Albert Preston, Artie Rice and Freddie Murdock take on D Torrington, D & A Duncan and Jim Baker.A horrible start saw the home rink 6 down after 2 ends and 13-4 down after 8 ends.The game continued in the same vein until the 13 end with the score now 18-8. After giving the Ballymena rink a good headstart, the fightback started and winning 4 ends on the trot cut the deficit to 18-16 after 17 end. The next 3 ends were equally shared and Freddie's fellas could rescue a half point with 2 in the last end. Alas it was not to be as the could only lift one to lose 21-20.

Rink 3 had Norman Shields, Francis Bell, JJ Leonard and Stanley Hegan face A Coleman, G Wilson, A Morrison and Nigel Robinson. A dropped 5 in the 5th end saw the home rink trail 6-4 after 5 ends.The game remained tight and was 11-9 to the visitors at 10 ends. Neither rink could dominate and the home rink trailed 16-13 at 15 ends.Nigel's rink opened up a 4 shot lead going into the last end. Foxy only managed to lift a 2 to lose 18-20.

Rink 4 saw Geoff McKinney, Billy McCullough, Mansel and Alan Montgomery take on JR Nicholl, J Gaston, S Falls and Stevie Coleman. A slow start saw the home rink trail 7-3 after 6 ends. A 5 end streak saw Al take a 9-7 lead after 11 ends. Monty's men then extended their lead to 17-13 at 18 ends. Unfortunately 6 dropped shots over the last 3 ends saw the point go to the visitors. Final score 17-19

Rink 5 had Derek Forsythe, Derek Brown, Ian Hutton and Brian Leonard face S Shields, A Bonnar, S Allen and A Kyle. A bad start saw the home rink lose 4 of the first 5 ends to trail 4-2. The game continued to slip away from the home rink and the deficit was 13-5 after 12 ends. A small revival cut the lead to 17-13 after 17 ends, however it was the the final end before the home rink scored again and then it was only a consolation shot . Final score 14-22.

Overall a 13 shot loss reflects a tight game better than the 0 points gained. At the 16 end stage there was only 4 shots in the game and certainly 1 or 2 points would have been a fairer reflection of the game.