The Oriel Zone men’s team saw their challenge to retain their title begin with a comfortable victory over South Tyrone.

The first half saw Stephen McMahons rink race into an early lead by piking up a count of 7 in the 2nd end and with 4 ends to go the lead looked unassailable at 19-4. However Damian Campbell’s rink gave a late rally to take his score to 19-9. John Murnaghan’s rink was nip and tuck throughout and with 4 ends to go could not be seperated at 6-6. The last few ends saw the Oriel quartet rally to win 10-7.  Niall hands four were also in a ding dong battle, this time with John Carson.  Niall played a few great bowls in the final stages of their match and eventually won 9-5

Ht score 38-21

For South Tyrone to have any chance they needed a quick start but this and their chances were quickly put to bed. Gerry McCabe’s rink raced into a 10-2 lead and Paddy Hanlon into a 9-1 lead and while they took their foot off the pedal in the last few ends, the contest as a whole was long over . The only saving grace for South Tyrone was the middle mat skipped by Ian Hobson who beat Paul Duff 6-12

Final Score Oriel 70 South Tyrone 47

next up is an away tie to larne