St. Anthony’s 29(2)v(5)36 Armagh Golf Club

Report by Sean Trainor  

The first game of the season between two of the so called big four saw the 2007 champions visit holders St. Anthony’s.  Both clubs fielded strong sides with new faces on show for both, P.Corvan turned out for St. Ants against his former club with S.Mc Call on show for AGC after making the switch from Richhill. 

St. Ants started brightly to lead on 4 rinks and by 13 shots with 4 ends played across the board, at this point it looked that St. Ants would overrun the Armagh side on their way to a comfortable victory, however it proved to be a false dawn as the golfers began to show their true form and set about overturning the 13 shot lead. By 5 ends AGC were level on 2 rinks and 9 shots behind, 6 ends 5 behind, and by the eight end it was clear the golfers were on the way to victory the question was could they secure full points. D Mc Donald & M Trainor held on for narrow wins to ensure 2 vital points St.Ants, but it was Armagh ’s night as they drew first blood in the title race.

Rink 1 Saw Marty Trainor take on George Crothers, is was all about the back ends as Corvan & Deering battled it out changing heads at every opportunity, the attacking game of the golfers saw them take a 3-5 lead before Marty added a count of 4 to lead 7-5.  Crothers fought back to level the scores at 8-8 (9 ends) but Marty struck the final blow for a 9-8 win.

Rink 2 saw P.Moore v D. Wright.  The St. Ant rink outplayed their opponents, but Derek Wright turned in a man of the match performance to win his point and possibility the match for AGC.  Derek turned around some impossible heads including a great shot with his final bowl to finally kill off St. Ants when an unlikely victory looked on the cards.

On three Sean Conroy’s rink lead 4-1 after 4 ends and should have been out of sight of R. Kidd, missed chance’s only encouraged kidd to redouble his efforts and it paid dividends as Armagh took control of the rink.  All four Armagh players moved up a gear winning 5 of the remaining 6 ends to complete an excellent 5-11 victory.

Danny Mc Donald bounced back from defeat in the opening game to ensure the St. Ants came away with the consolation of 2 league points, however Ivan Marshall’s rink fought back from 6-1 down to lose 9-8 played a vital role in the overall win.

Great win for Armagh Golf Club, and on this showing they will certainly be in the melting pot come the end of the season.  St. Anthony’s once again start a season poorly, but its early day’s.