Report on the Last Interzone Match

 

 

John Murnaghan and Michael Hand discussing a shot

Oriel began slowly by losing shots across the board, 4-0 down after first end. This was the only bright spark for North West, who struggled to cope with the form of Oriel’s team. Paul’s rink of Gerry Crosby, Niall Hand and John McMahon were playing some incredible shots, with Niall burying jacks and John and Paul drawing some magical bowls. Playing the last end Paul was extremely unlucky to drop 2 but still came out victors 11-8.  John Murnaghan’s game was fascinating to watch from start to finish. It was a real battle of personalities between John and Danny. John played a wonder shot in the 3rd end to get one and sprung him into life. Thomas Martin had toucher after toucher and Jim Fox and Michael just increased the pressure. Playing the last end the scores were tied at 7-7. John, as cool as you like, delivered the bowl of the day and took Danny out for 5 to win 12-7. Paddy’s rink of Paul Corvan, Philip Mackin and Conor Mackin kept the pressure on and with 2 ends to go was 12-3 up. Paddy played a crucial last bowl in the 9th end to remove Keith's bowl for a count of 6. Playing the last bowl, Paddy again was left with vitally important bowl. Paddy fired on the backhand and turned a count 4 against into a count of 5 for. Keith managed to cut it down to 3 but it certainly didn’t take the gloss of an incredible score line of 21-3. More importantly Oriel took a 26 shot lead into the 2nd half.

 

Paul Duff after delivering a bowl

With such a massive lead all Oriel had to do was to keep the games close. North West began brightly again scoring across the board. Ryan O'Neill decided that all-out attack was the only chance of getting back into the game and that’s exactly what he did with an exhibition of sinking the jack against Stephen McMahon. After 3 ends in total Ryan had a 7-1 lead. Kevin's rink was also struggling at 5-1. Gerry however was holding his own at 2-2. All of a sudden the lead was 16 shots and still plenty of ends to go. Could the comeback be on? The answer was an emphatic no! Gerry McCabe and Fra Dillon showed why they were one of the most feared pairs in Ireland, by winning the next 6 ends in a row to lead 10-2. Kevin was having a great tussle with Leigh Harrison throughout and in truth his match could have gone either way eventually losing 10-9. Every end Jason or Stephen came in the jack was in the ditch and after a terrible start did well to only lose 14-3. The match however was long since over.

Man of the Match:

Very hard to pick today as the first half was all incredible! Thomas Martin had toucher after toucher but I can’t look by the 3 skips. John Murnaghan was at his best against a very tricky rink, Paul Duff hardly missed a thing but due to the score line I have to give it to Paddy Hanlon. He hardly missed a shot in an incredible performance. His firing shots were spot on including an incredible bowl to pick up 6.