Sport

Ballymoney score a hat-trick in Portstewart

BALLYMONEY players were very much to the fore in the PJ McIlroy-sposored PBA finals at Portstewart BC last weekend.

The Church Street side completed a hat-trick of titles including the singles, youth singles and fours.

Willie McCaw, who was crowned singles champion in 2009, repeated the feat when he got home by six shots against clubmate Martin McAleese. McCaw booked his final berth when he overcame another club colleague Gary Kelly in the semis.

Simon Martin provided another Ballymoney success when he wwon the  youth singles and Kelly completed the treble with an impressive win against Coleraine’s Ian Ross in the fours.

Kelly was narrowly denied in the pairs decider when he and Brian Hughes only went down by a single shot to brothers Rodney and Barry Kane of Dunluce.

Marty McHugh was in seventh heaven in the NIBA finals at Carrickfergus. The Whitehead man, already a record six times winner of the singles, extended his domination of the competition although he had to endure a torrid finish against Balmoral’s Mitchell Albert who only went down by a single shot.

Brendan Power and Gerard McGleave of Divis repeated their pairs success in 2012 and the latter and clubmates Ronan Cregan and Liam Wright only lost out in the closing stages of the triples to Portadown’s Aidan Corrigan, Mark Sproule and Richard McMullan. The latter failed to complete a double when they lost to Bangor’s Robert Hastings in the fours final.

Defending singles champion Andy Morrison failed to retain the singles crown in the PGL championships at Old Bleach. The Ballymena player lost by 11 shots to Dunbarton’s Peter Convery.

In an all-Belmont pairs decider Paul Daly and Simon Martin recorded a comfortable 13-shot vic tory against Chris Eadie and Roy Battersby. Morrison enjoyed some consolation when he defeated Pickie’sn Donald Mills in the triples.

The host club’s Neil Booth finished seven shots ahead of Larne’s Andrew Kyle in the rinks final.

Meanwhile, Dunbarton kept their hopes of retaining the PGL Division One title alive when they defeated current leaders Old Bleach by 32 shots and picked up 6.5 points.