Ballymena win Irish Senior and Junior Challenge Cups!
Thursday, 4 September 2008
Champions! Ballymena Seniors after winning the IBA Senior Cup.
On Saturday afternoon at Belmont Bowling Club the members of Ballymena Senior and Junior teams wrote themselves into the annuls of Club folklore by winning both the IBA Gouldings Irish Senior and Junior Challenge Cups!
The Braid Seniors who had never won the Senior Cup before, ensured that their name would be appearing as 2008 champions by destroying Bangor by 99 shots to 49 in what turned out to be a very one sided final.
The Junior outfit dispatched Falls by 86 shots to 59 to lift the Irish Junior Cup for the third time in the Clubs history - 1935 and 2000 being the other victorious years.
The last time a Club won BOTH trophies was in 1986 when Cliftonville managed this feat.
It was a perfect scenario for Ballymena Seniors and Juniors on Saturday as both teams had qualified for their respective Irish Cup finals and Club members had the bonus of being able to support the two local outfits with the matches held at the same venue - Belmont Bowling Club, in East Belfast.
The Irish Cups have not been able to be played there in recent years as Belmont Seniors have been in the final - and won it - for the last five years! Hopes were high this year for Braid successes, but Cup matches are often very unpredictable - as Ballymena have found to their cost in recent years!
