Today saw the conclusion of this year’s British Isles finals held in Leamington Spa.

Ireland had qualified for four of the seven finals.

First up, this morning, was John Byrne (Crumlin BC) who was against the Commonwealth Games player from Wales, Ross Owen. John put up and excellent fight but unfortunately, Ross Owen was just too good on the day and ran out as the winner.

The rest of the finals were in the afternoon. Jack Moffett (Banbridge BC) was in the U18 final against Scotlands Craig MacIntosh. The game was of high quality and was closely fought with Jack getting over line first. Jack produced an excellent performance and I sure this is just the first of many British Isles titles.

Next up was Aaron Tennant and Gary Kelly (Ballymoney BC) who outbowled the English pair in a high quality final with some excellent leading from Aaron which Gary used to their advantage to win the Pairs title with four ends to spare.

The Senior Fours was the final piece in a successful day when they added a third title with a close win over the England four. The Irish rink of Tommy Johnston, Willie Lennox, Eric Sands and Colin Hogg (Cookstown BC) opened up a lead, however, the England rink fought back. The match was effectively decided in the 2oth end when faced with a ‘count’ against him skip Colin Hogg turned the jack into the ditch for a count of two leaving the Irish with a lead of five going into the last end. Ten minutes later the third title was ‘in the bag’.

This third title also secured the NatWest trophy for the best country overall in the championship. This is the third time in four years Ireland has finished first and Ireland President was delighted to collect the trophy.

The international series now begins tomorrow morning with a first game against Wales. Let’s hope the team can mirror the success of the past two days and capture the International championship.

You can follow Irelands progress ‘live’ by clicking on the link below:

Real-Time scoring of 2018 International series