Ding-dong duels all the rage in junior singles

THE latest action in the Greenhills Junior round robin singles tournament produced six keenly contested matches played over nine ends last Tuesday night.

Robert Mc Cormack, who was pitted against Noel Mc Donnell, trailed by two shots early on but played some inspirational bowls to turn it around and go four up after four ends.

Noel rallied in the seventh end to trim the deficit to two, but Robert wasn’t about to let his lead slip away and after going on the attack with some excellent backhand and forehand shots to the head he completed a four-shot victory.

In the second match Sophie Thornberry eventually saw off Aaron Mc Kenna in a ding-dong battle.

Aaron made a slick start and was three up at one stage, missing opportunities to increase his lead still further. However, Sophie took the next three ends on the trot to go five up.

Aaron steadied himself and with two ends to play the gap was only two shots, but Sophie held her nerve and fired into the head to complete victory by five shots.

Diarmuid Loughman faced a nervous-looking Cian Mc Kenna who trailed by four after three ends. Cian got his act together but was still four in arrears with six ends completed. At that stage he made a tactical switch, calling a short jack, and caught his opponent on the hop as he reduced the deficit to two shots with two ends left.

Ultimately, though, all those efforts were to no avail as Diarmuid settled himself once more and eventually secured a five-shot victory in fine style.

The match between Caitlin Floyd and Saoirse Allen was neck and neck throughout, with neither player able to eke out a lead of more than two shots at any stage.

The seventh and eighth ends were of a very high quality as Saoirse attempted to defend a two-shot lead, but when it came to the crunch Caitlin demonstrated that little bit of extra quality to take the game in a nail-biting finish by two shots.

Robert McCormack then returned to the mat for his second game of the night, this time against Ciara Floyd, and built up an early three-shot advantage.

Ciara’s nerves were a bit frayed and it was somewhat against the run of play that she took the next two ends on the bounce to storm into a four-shot lead.

Robert battled on and got the deficit down to two after six ends, only for Ciara to restore a four-shot advantage with just two ends to play. Robert pushed hard but ultimately gained no reward as his opponent showed her creative skill to close out a four-shot victory at the end of another hard-fought match.

Sophie Thornberry and Chloe Dykstra completed the night’s action and the latter player got a three-shot head start and then extended that advantage to five after two ends.

Sophie showed great mental strength to level the match in the fourth end and eventually went four up with just two ends remaining. Chloe was really rattled but weathered the storm and cut the deficit down to two with just the final end to play.

It was too little too late, though, and Sophie went into overdrive to take the game comfortably by five shots.

On the Oriel Zone League front, Greenhills Bowls Club played away to Collon last Friday night secured six points to stay top of Division 2.

Times of play this week are Tuesday 7 to 8.15pm for juveniles and Tuesday and Thursday from 8.15 to 10.30pm for seniors.