INDOOR BOWLS

Kildare West Wicklow Indoor Bowling Association (KWWIBA)

Caragh Fail To Halt The Kildare Bandwagon - It was the turn of the Caragh team to travel to Kildare to take on Kildare Town in Rd.11 of the Division 1 bowling league in the wonderful building and setting of the Educate Together School at Melitta Road, Kildare, on Monday, February 5.

This was an eagerly awaited fixture by the bowling fraternity. Especially as these two teams are widely considered to be the ‘giants’ of the game for the last few years. Kildare who have been on song from the start of the season and are clear leaders in the table at the moment will not want to drop points in their own home town.

Caragh, after a slow start to the campaign, especially by their standards, have gradually clawed their back into second position.

But they still have some ground to make up to challenge the leaders, and would need some points out of this clash, otherwise the gap will widen more and will leave a huge mountain to climb if they are to retain the title they have won for the last two years.

Caragh, in their clash at home to this opposition in the first half of the league, managed to win three points out of the five on offer, but things won’t be easy in Kildare as the hosts are playing wonderful bowls and have taken maximum points in seven of their 10 matches and have won two points, three points and three points respectively in their other three games.

No Contest - Although the visitors started off very well on mat 1 and after four ends it seemed as if they would upset the odds by racing into a lead of 4-0, but once Kildare got into their stride the game took on a different complexion altogether. In fact Caragh failed to score again until the 10th end and this time it was only a score of one, which left the score 10-4 in favour of the home team.

Kildare remained the masters from there to the finish and again held the visitors to another single score and that didn’t come until the last end. Kildare finishing with a 16-6 win. It was obvious from a long ways out that this was really going to be no contest.

Kildare: Jimmy Rowan, Frank Connolly, Eddie Heffernan and Fintan Downey.

Caragh: Timmy Wright, John O’Toole, Martin Lynch and Denis Judge.

Lived Up To All Expectations - Mat 2 certainly lived up to all expectations as it produced an absolutely super game of bowls.

Kildare opened the scoring with a single score on the first end and followed it up with another score on the second. Caragh replied with a score of three on the third end to take the lead.

The home team took the initiative once again on the next end, and continued to keep their heads in front albeit by a small margin. Caragh were always nibbling at their tails therefore leaving no room for any complacency by Kildare.

On the 12th end the visitors brought the teams all square on a scoreline of 11-11. The game now was really in the ‘melting pot’ with only three ends remaining; any mistake by either side at this stage would give the advantage to the other.

Kildare who were slightly the better side throughout remained cool, calm and collective and added the necessary scores to pull away and win on a final scoreline of 16-11.

Kildare: Margaret Gorry, Jim Condron, Richie Baker and Mark Caldwell.

Caragh: Dom Kavanagh, Pat O’Driscoll,