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Donegal women lift McIlroy Cup
13.02.12
THE Donegal women's
indoor bowling team finally cracked it after 36
years when they brought the McIlroy Cup to the
county.
They were up against the mighty Armagh and this was
a rerun of last year’s final, when the Orchard
ladies beat the home side by an overwhelming margin
of 28 shots. Armagh ladies have lifted the trophy
six times and, on current form, the pundits
considered it would be a major upset if they failed
to add to the total. |
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The triumphant Donegal women's indoor
bowling team after lifting the McIlroy Cup after 36
years. |
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The Armagh side was
laden with talent including five-time ladies single
champion, Pauline Beattie, her mother, May Cassells,
Catherine McMillen and Flo McNally and Donegal faced
a daunting task. Fortunately, Donegal did not read
the script the pundits wrote and set off on the team
coach with steely determination to write their own
script. In the first half, on mat one, D Montgomery,
Ruby Graham, M McClintock and M Montgomery did not
match their previous campaign form and went down by
13 shots to 4 shots to a very good rink skipped by
Armagh’s E Smyth. On mat three, S Bell, L O’Kane, P
Eaton-Friel and A Gilfillan had a tight battle with
Armagh’s M Cassells and came out with a creditable
win of 10 shots to 9 shots. However, the fireworks
were occurring on mat two where P Lyttle, K Duggan,
L Finlay and V Patterson were in overdrive against
the unfortunate Armagh’s D Marshall running out 17
shots to 2 shots winners after the 10 ends. This
left Donegal going into the second half with a 7
shots advantage but with an uncomfortable feeling of
the spectre of Pauline Beattie looming. However, M
Beattie, R Hamilton, J Buchanan and Inishowen’s
Elizabeth Doherty dug their heels in to ensure that
Pauline was only one shot ahead after 8 ends. On mat
two, T Jacob, S Finlay, I Duncan and R McDonnell
were turning the screw on Armagh’s F McNally,
building up an 18 shots to 3 shots lead and on mat
one S Alexander, A McClintock, P Bustard and R
Crawford were causing Armagh’s C McMillan all sorts
of grief by winning 13 shots 3 shots. By winning by
67 shots to 36 shots with two ends unplayed, Donegal
certainly gained revenge for last year’s rout and
can now be proud of their efforts on behalf of the
county. (Fred Aicken) |
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