Dunbarton in opening day demolition job

Old Bleach A 57 (0pts)

Dunbarton A 100 (7pts)

More importantly the locals chalked up a maximum seven points to lay down a marker to the rest of the league – the Dunbarton boys will not give up their league title easily this year!

Last season the Gilford side lost in the league at the Randalstown venue and were also knocked out of the Irish Senior Cup on the same green. However, in the season opener, the locals got revenge for those defeats with a terrific performance against one of their major rivals.

Right from the word go, the away side moved ahead and never looked back. At one stage around the 12 end mark, the hosts did reduce their arrears to just six shots, but unperturbed the locals put their foot back on the accelerator and two ends later were in excess of 20 shots ahead again.

Top rink of the day was skipped by Barry Browne who opened up an early 13-3 lead at 10 ends and cruised to a superb 19 shot win.

On the other middle rink Jack A Moffett had a battle royale with M McHugh from the host club. Having got off to a flyer and led 15-4, the locals then proceeded to lose back to back counts of five and suddenly only led by one.

COMEBACK

With the scores then locked at 20 shots apiece, Jack's men took off again scoring 4,3,2,2 to storm home by 11 shots.

Meanwhile, on the outside rink, DJ Wilson's four produced an epic comeback! Having been very unfortunate to trail 4-16 after 12 ends, the Gilford men battled back and managed to outscore their rivals by an astonishing 20 shots to 1 over the final 9 ends for a wonderful 7 shot success.

And then to round off an incredible afternoon for the visitors, Alan Paul's four put together a run of 3,1,2,2,1 from ends 14-18 to guarantee their point after a really tight game, eventually winning by 6 points.

What made this win even more remarkable was the fact that the A team were missing three players from their team with Richard McMullan unavailable, Gary McElroy recovering from shoulder surgery and skip Conor McCartan a late withdrawal with flu. However young 17 year old Ben Hogg was brought in for his debut and had a super first game for the Senior team.

SCORES

Rink 1 B Hogg, D McElroy, A O'Keefe, A Paul up 19-13

Rink 2 J Kidd, J Magennis, M Trainor, B Browne up 26-7

Rink 3 R McElroy, K Trainor, A Hughes, JA Moffett up 31-20

Rink 4 D Jordan, J Moffett, M Greenfield, DJ Wilson up 24-17

This weekend the Dunbarton A team host Larne A and it is vital that the locals back up their great win at Old Bleach with another win. The game starts at 2pm.

Dunbarton B 107 (6pts)

Old Bleach B 56 (1pt)

And it wasn't only the A team that got their season off to a great start as the Dunbarton B team started the defence of their Division 2 title with a resounding 57 shot success at home to Old Bleach B.

The locals led from start to finish and picked up six of the seven points on offer.

Top rink of the day was skipped by David Copeland as they thumped their rivals by a huge 28 shots.

Not far behind was Sean Trainor's four who scored three separate counts of four in the first five ends to storm clear and eventually cruise home by 19. The other two contests were much tighter.

Matthew Adamson had a titanic battle with his opposition rink and with two ends remaining led by just one shot. Thankfully the home rink put together two fine ends to score counts of five and four and end up victorious by 10 shots.

On the final rink Gary Feeney's four were unable to make it maximum points as they lost out by six shots.

A tremendous start to the season for the Dunbarton B team.

SCORES

Rink 1 A Copeland, I Hutton, B Prunty, D Copeland up 35-7

Rink 2 G Magennis, B McMillan, A Magennis, M Adamson up 25-15

Rink 3 Shea Trainor, M Hogg, D McKeating, G Feeney down 21-27

Rink 4 D Trainor, M Doyle, S Breen, Sean Trainor up 26-7

This Saturday the Dunbarton B team travel to Ballywalter, this game starts at 2pm.