Greenhills members out in force for charity tournament

GREENHILLS members turned out in force for the start of the charity tournament over nine ends, the winner of which will nominate the charity of their choice.

In the first match Marie Maher was pitted against her husband Jackie and there was no quarter asked or given in this ding-dong battle which was still all square after four ends.

Jackie played a combination of shots to the head in the next two ends to take the lead two up, but that spurred Marie on as she went into overdrive in the eighth end to go three up, ultimately coming up trumps by five shots.

Josephine Moran clashed with Aileen Fitzgerald and if the latter was expecting a hard-fought match she got exactly that, going five shots down after four ends.

There was cause for optimism when Aileen shrank the deficit to one, with three ends still remaining, but Josephine halted her opponent’s progress in the next two ends to increase her lead to four and Aileen’s last-end rally was too little too late as she came up short by two shots.

In the third match Val Maguire was pitted against another seasoned campaigner in Alice Leonard and this one was level after five ends, before Val moved up a couple of gears and went two ahead after six.

Alice showed her superb drawing ability as she turned it around over the next two ends to lead by three shots with the last end to play.

However, Val stayed calm, composed and confident and played some lovely draw shots to the jack to snatch victory at the death by one shot.

In the fourth match Jimmy Flood played against Jack Howell and the latter was four ahead after six ends.

The complexion of this game changed when Jack gifted the next end to Jimmy, putting some bowls into the ditch and leaving them short, and the lead was down to two with two ends remaining.

In the next Jimmy had the head surrounded with bowls, only for Jack to fire into the head to increase his lead to four.

In the final end Jimmy had to produce something special, but Jack defended well and ran out a comfortable winner by five shots.

Sean Donnelly took on Alan Thornberry and the latter dominated the early stages and after six ends he held a four-shot advantage.

It looked as if the pressure was weighing heavily on Sean, but he sprang into action in the next two ends to trim the deficit down to two shots with the final end to play.

The two lads went head-to-head in a fantastic finish, with both players playing brilliant bowls, but Alan held to take the game by one shot.

In the last match of the night Valarie Barron was up against Tony Lacken and there was little difference between these two players in the first few ends, with Tony eventually going one up after five.

That advantage increased to three after seven ends, but the vastly experienced Valarie hit back and used her creative skills to play a combination of shots to a short jack and long jack respectively in the remaining ends to secure a three-shot win.

Times of play for juveniles are Tuesday 7 to 8.15pm, and for seniors 8.15 to 10.30pm on Tuesday and Thursday.