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Mid Ulster ladies claimed this year's Plate Shield with a 12 shot win over West Down. Mid Ulster made an excellent start and went into 13 - 5 lead after 3 ends. The rink of Shiela Anderson, Edna Slaine, Mary McIvor and Judith Wilson totally dominated their game against M Gamble, J Flemimg, M Magee and N Stevenson losing only one end to win 15 - 1. The Mid Ulster skip delivered the bowl of the final on the 6th end with five against to draw a magnificent bowl are the head to claim shot.  The game on mat 2 was more evenly contested. The Mid Ulster rink of Elizabeth Brown, Kathleen McKenna, Ann Barnes and Margaret Paul came up against a rink  of L Martin, J Hamilton, C Bell and M Adair which recovered from a 7 - 1 deficit after 6 ends to 7 - 6 after 8. The Mid Ulster rink picked up 3 shots to win 9 - 6. The final first half game appeared the reverse of mat 1 with the West Down rink of B Conlon, O McKnight, E Kennedy, and A Anderson finishing 13 - 4 up on the Mid Ulster rink of T Dardis, D Young, O Kyle and A McEldowney but the score did not tell the full story. The West Down skip had a magnificent game crucially turning a 4 and 3 against into shots for her rink with the 6th end crucila when the Down rink picked up a six.
At the interval Mid Ulster led 28 - 20.
In the second half little changed as far as the overall score  was concerned with little seperating the rinks on the three mats. On mat 1, the Mid Ulster rink of Mary B Higgins, Maura Lagan, Jean Fulton, and M ichelle ichelle Mallon led their opponents A Polin, P martin, A Magee and N Stevenson by 4 - 3 after 6 ends only to drop 5 in teh next 2 ends. They manage to pick up two singles to finish 8 - 6 down. As this game was progressing some excellent bowling particularly by West Down back ends saw the game at one stage close to 5 shots.Mid Ulster, however, held their nerve. On mat 2, Evelyn Wright, Gladys Sims, Hazel Greer and Isobel Colvin had a tight game with West Down's  H Stevenson, E Robb, E Crothers and R Harrison with the West Down skip playing several crucial shot saving bowls. The rinks were level at 8 - 8 after 8 ends but a single gave the Down rink the advantage going into the last end. A 3 on teh last end, however, saw Mid Ulster home by 11 - 8. In the final game between Mid ULser's Brigid Davidson, Teresa McKenna, Denise McHugh and Melissa Davidson came back from dropping a 3 on teh 1st end against A Cannaway, S Dunn, B Wilson and A McGarrity to lead 6 - 5 after 6 ends. The Down rink came back to take the lead after 7ends but a scoring of 5 shots over the last 3 ends saw the Mid Ulster rink home 11 - 7 with the West Down skip playing a good bowl to reduce a 6 to just two shots on the penultimate end.
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