Bowls: Cookstown gain victory over Portglenone

Liam McHugh, Eric Sands, William Lennox and Ashley Wright faced the Portglenone rink skipped by Joe Moore.

Nothing much separted these two rinks throughout the match. With one end remaining, McHugh and his rink, trailed by 1 shot. They fought hard a salvaged a shot to gain half a point.

Damien McElroy, Sean Quinn, Michael Trimby and Chris McKnight took on Portglenone rink skipped by Eamon McCann. McElroy and his rink started off quite positively in this match though fantastic bowls from Eamon McCann kept Cooksttown at bay.

With 15 ends played Cookstown trailed 17-12, with the momentum firmly in Portglenone’s court.

McElroy and his rink never say die attitude paided off when they lifted a massive count of six to take a one shot lead. Going into the last end Damien and his rink had a narrow one shot lead and held firm to lift a count of five to win by six shots.

Mark Wilson, Thomas McAleavey, Aaron Ward and Johnny Shepherd where drawn against Chris Jones. Mark and his rink shot out of the traps and held a ten shot advantage after seven ends.

Jones and his rink kept their cool and slowly pulled the score back and even took the lead late on. Going into the last end Cookstown held a slender two shot advantage. Cookstown kept their nerve to gain another valuable point.

Colin Hogg, Trevor Vance, Damien McCracken and Marc McCracken where pitted against Gary Merron. Hogg and his rink have been Cookstown’s heaviest scoring rink recently and this time Merron was on the receiving end of a Cookstown onslaught.

Cookstown scored several massive counts in this match and while other Cookie rinks where locked in tight battles across the green, Hogg and his troops could do no wrong amassing a brilliant 40-9 win.

Even though Cookstown won this match comfortably, they could easily have lost some points with three rinks match heavily contested.