Championships Finals Roundup

The NIBA Championships Finals at Balmoral BC concluded yesterday afternoon in fine display of excellent and competitive matches, where both the winners and runners-up in the 7 competitions entertained spectators and supporters alike with superb individual and team performances.

Cameron Gaw of Donaghadee (pictured) lifted the prodigious Open Singles title with a 21-11 result over Colin Todd from Whitehead. A cat and mouse first 10 ends eventually saw Cameron pull away, with Colin making a valiant effort to reduce the deficit, which was just outside his reach. Congratulations to both these young players and are great prospects for the future.

With the surname of Wallace, spectators could be excused for any confusion unintended, as Sam from Whitehead took the Junior Singles title in an excellent contest over Ross from Curran with a 21-16 score line.

Daniel Donnan, another ‘young un’ from the Donaghadee camp, eventually pipped Peter Haughey of Banbridge in a closely contested Youth Singles final by the mere margin of 4 shots, 21-17.

The Open Pairs final saw the long established ‘garvey’ pairing of Philip Cromie & Noel Graham coast to a 28-7 win over Bangor’s Matthew Crawford & Thomas McClean.

Whitehead & Banbridge contested the Triples final with William Browne, Jason Tweedie & Barry Browne (Whitehead), eventually grabbing the coveted silverware after any intriguing and very competitive match 23-14 against Paul O’Keefe, Derek Wright & Aaron O’Keefe.

Banbridge again featured a final, this time in the Fours discipline with Gordon McGinnis, Fergus Larkin, James Kelly and skip, Clifford Dennison giving an excellent and very competitive performance against a tough and eventually resilient Divis four. Patrick Rooney, Patrick McCafferty, Brendan Power & Gerrard McGleave taking this title 20-9.

Last but not least, the Senior Fours final saw the Whitehead ‘auld fellas’, Jonney ONeill, Stephen Moran, Dessie Hill & James Caldwell lift the trophy 22-12 against the Bangor four of Rodney McCutcheon, Brian McFall, Gary Scott & Robert Hastings.

Whitehead Club were awarded the George Richardson Trophy.

We extend our best wishes to the all the winners as they venture onward to represent our Association  in the IBA Championships against our kindred Associations winners on 6-7 September at Ards BC. Also, very well done to the Runners-up and beaten Semi Finalists for making these Championships Finals week such a great success.

NIBA also extend thier thanks to Balmoral BC for hosting the 2019 Championships Finals.