Bowlers avenge 2015 Irish Cup final defeat to knock out holders

Andi Duncan's rink played a key role in Ballymena's Irish Senior Cup win over Dunbarton.

Ballymena avenged their Irish Senior Cup final defeat by Dunbarton last year when they knocked the holders out of the competition on Saturday.

It turned out to be a great day for the Braid men who recorded a fine 12 shot victory at the Old Ballymoney Road green.

Steven Shields, Neal Garrett, Andrew Morrison and Andi Duncan were in sparkling form against A Hughes on rink 1 and they dominated right from start of the game.

With 6 ends played they led by 10 shots to 0 and this was still the difference between the 2 rinks with 10 ends completed with the score board reading 13-3.

The Ballymena rink continued to outplay the visitors and they restricted them to only 2 more singles during the remainder of the game while Duncan’s men racked up another 18 shots to claim a comprehensive 31-5 victory.

This was a superb rink performance and set the foundation for a great win for the Ballymena team.

On rink 2 David Duncan, Michael Wilson, Mark Torrington and Jim Baker shared 18 shots with the Dunbarton rink skipped by DJ Wilson over the opening 10 ends.

The Braid men won the next 5 ends to open up a 6 shot margin however they were unable to score again as the visitors picked up 13 shots over the remaining ends to win the game by 22 shots to 16.