Baltinglass show great composure to halt Kildare comeback in KWWIBA

Kildare West Wicklow Indoor Bowling Association (KWWIBA)

Kildare Town Bowling Tournament

The conclusion of the Kildare Town bowling tournament certainly produced the goods with the Cup and Shield finals.

Baltinglass Survive Kildare Tornado

The Cup final saw the West Wicklow side Baltinglass pitted against one of the host teams. Baltinglass on the path to this final discarded all opposition with relative ease, and would be the favourites in this one, while the Kildare side were also worthy finalist having disposed of tough opponents along the way. Expectations were high that this game would produce a real classic. Well! We definitely got plenty of thrills in this contest, except for a brief period in the first third of the game when it looked like it was going to be another proverbial ‘cake walk’ for the in-form Baltinglass team. Kildare got off to a great start by scoring three on the first end, but on the second end their opponents had reduced that lead to one. But on the next few ends it was all Baltinglass, as they forged ahead by a whopping nine scores. At this stage it looked as if they would continue as they did in all their previous rounds and just canter to victory. Kildare decided to introduce their sub John Gleeson at this juncture that allowed them to reshuffle the team. Tommy Martin moved to the now vacant position of number two and John took up Tommy’s position at number three. What a difference these changes instantly made to the performance of the team. Kildare gradually started to claw their way back. End by end the gap was narrowing and on the twelfth end amazingly the sides were level. With three ends left, the most critical time in the game, it was a question of could Baltinglass recover their composure and halt the Kildare tornado that had demolished their seemingly unassailable lead or could Kildare continue to pile more misery on them. As with all great teams when the chips were down, they responded with coolness and precision by scoring two on the next end and also a score of one on the fourteenth. Three clear, and still the last end to play, it was anything but certain about the outcome, could Baltinglass hold out or could Kildare produce one last supreme effort to save the day?A supreme effort was produced all right but it only wielded a score of one. Classic game with the final score Baltinglass 17 Kildare 15. One was left wondering if the Kildare personnel that finished the game had lined out from the start would the result have been different. But in fairness to the West Wicklow side they just about deserved their victory and are the holders of the McWey Cup for 2016. Baltinglass: Joey Fagan, John Kehoe, Pat Brazil and Edward Lawrence. Kildare: David O’Connell, Mick Mangan, Tommy Martin, Richie Baker and sub John Gleeson.  

Rathangan Take the Honours in Cracker

Rathcoffey and Rathangan supplied the entertainment in the Shield final in front of a large attendance. With Rathangan recording a score of one on the first end and with Rathcoffey recording a score of one on the second end this set the trend for a very absorbing and exciting game of bowls. With both teams playing to their full potential there was very little given away in the line of significant scores. In actually fact on the ninth end the sides were level at seven scores apiece. It was on the next end that produced the game changer when Rathangan took the lead by three, and this being such a close and tight fought match a score of three was a real morale booster. Rathangan now began to dictate matters and continued to score more frequently from thereon. By the fourteenth end they had increased their lead by eight.  Even though Rathcoffey scored three on the last end it was too little to late to make any difference to the eventual outcome. So Rathangan take the honours in a cracker of a match even though the final score might suggest otherwise. Score: Rathangan 16 Rathcoffey 11. Rathangan: Yvonne Condron, Derek Brooks, Eileen Smullen and Pian Neylan. Rathcoffey: Eamonn Cunningham, Gerry McCann, Myra Gavin and Noel Byrne.   The Kildare Town Bowling Club wish to express their thanks to all the clubs that participated and the many spectators who turned up each night to watch the games. To all the volunteers for their dedicated work in setting up the venue each night and to the catering staff who worked tirelessly every night supplying the refreshments. Last but not least, a special thanks to Des McWey for sponsoring the tournament once again.  

The Tom Boland Perpetual Memorial Cup (Allen Tournament)

 The annual bowling tournament run by the Allen Bowling Club in memory of Tom Boland will commence on Monday July 18^th and continue up to Sunday July 24^th Category: Open-Fours.       Entry fee: €30 per team.   Draw: Thursday 14^th 11 ends up to and including Quarter Finals. 15 ends Semi-Finals and Finals.