Ladies suffer surprise defeat in opening game
![Bowls.](https://www.northernirelandworld.com/webimg/legacy_oak_82387296.jpg?crop=3:2,smart&width=640&quality=65&enable=upscale)
![Bowls.](/img/placeholder.png)
The Ladies were hoping to pick up where they left off last year when they won the Provincial Town Women’s Bowling Association Senior League without losing a game but what a difference a year makes.
The ladies travelled to Portstewart last Wednesday afternoon in their opening encounter and were only able to return home with a single point to show for their endeavours.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdEva Gage, Maree Houston, Sile Garvey and Barbara Cameron were drawn against T O’Neill. The home rink made the early running when they picked up 3 shots over the opening 2 ends but the visitors hit back with a count of 4 shots on the 3rd end. Seven singles were scored over the next few ends and so with 10 ends completed the Ballymena ladies lead by 8 shots to 6.
Portstewart appeared to have gained the upper hand when they picked up counts of 5 and 2 over the next couple of ends however a single on the 13th end and a count of 5 shots on the next end gave the visitors a slender 1 shot lead with 4 ends remaining.
That however was as good as it got for the Braid rink as the Portstewart ladies picked up 4 singles over the remaining ends to claim victory by 17 shots to 14.
Jean Rainey, Andrea McKeown, Linda McCullough and Jennifer Dowds made a good start against B O’Neill when they won the first 3 ends to lead by 5 shots however 4 ends later the rinks were level with the score board reading 7-7. The game changed in favour of the home rink when they won the next 5 ends to open up a 6 shot advantage.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdThe Ballymena ladies fought back over the next 3 ends to reduce the arrears to a single shot but 3 shots on the 16th end put the Portstewart ladies in charge and with singles exchanged over the remaining 2 ends it left the visitors on the wrong side of a 17-13 score line.
Ballymena ladies could only field 3 players and so Barbara Burnett, Erin Smith and Sarah Jane Coleman knew that they would have to be on top of their game against P Curry knowing that when the game concluded that they would lose a quarter of their score.
The first 4 ends were well contested with both rinks scoring 2 singles but the Ballymena ladies were in fine form and with the help of 3 counts of 3 shots over the next 12 ends the visitors went in to the last 2 ends with a 13 shot advantage.
The Portstewart rink scored a single shot on the penultimate end and even though they also claimed a count of 5 shots on the final end it could not take the gloss off an excellent Braid performance with the final score 14.25 - 12