The first Rocks Jewellers event of 2019 gives the bowlers the chance to play on the oil pattern that will be used for the European Bowling Tour ranked Irish Open which starts on the 13th of January in Leisureplex Stillorgan. With the exception of Barry Foley who lit up the lanes firing a qualifying average of 249, the remaining qualifying scores were well below the field average for the season to date with only 6 players making a 200 average or more.
Both Scratch semi-finals were well contested with Barry Foley having to strike out in semi-final 1 to shut out Alan McDonnell by 226 to Alan’s 219. Semi-final 2 was a case of who could carry and unfortunately for Jason Byrnes (who finished strongly in qualifying to take 2nd place) he was unable to match Alan Bride’s strike rate that gave him the match by 245 to Jason’s 212.
Alan was able to maintain his form in the Final and had a comfortable win over Barry by 244 to 222 to give him his 3rd win of the season.
The 1st Handicap semi-final was a struggle for both players with splits a plenty in the first half, after which Dymphna Kestell found her form and took the match with a 194 against Kathleen Lyons who scored 173. P J Shine played very consistently in the 2nd semi-final to take the match 222 to 200 from Paddy Gibbons. In the Final both players upper their game and it was a much tighter match right up to the 9th frame when P J took control with a couple of strikes into the 10th frame and closed out the match by 242 to Dymphna’s 228 to take his first title of the season.
Congratulations to the winners Alan Bride (Scratch Division) & P J Shine (Handicap Division) and all the finalists.
Full details from Event 5 are available on the Rocks Jewellers Tab/Results.
Next Event 3rd February 2019