WILSON 1 KENNY 6

JOHNJO Kenny, Bill Gray, David Whyte, Tony Tierney, Neil Fyfe along with coach David Hume are the 2014 Irish mens senior champions after winning the five-game challenge against Peter Wilson, PJ Wilson, David Smith and Tom Roche three games to two.

In the deciding rubber, David Whyte lead and Neil Fyfe played second stones in the five-man Kenny squad. The teams swapped ones before, at the third end, JJ was forced to take his one after good play from the Wilson quartet. The fourth was blanked, but only after Kenny had to play a beezer to take the momentum away from Wilson. Pete’s team looked good for a two but a hit and roll directly in line with Wilson second shot back eight from JJ changed things. Wilson was left with a tricky hack weight hit to try and punt the shot past his own stone and lie two but he got it too square and clipped his own stone on the way past, rolling it out. JJ hit and stuck, Pete then hit and rolled out.

There were lots of stones in play in the fifth. For the skips’ stones, JJ elected to guard his shot on the back eight, Pete tried to come through a port to lie shot but caught a front stone, JJ drew second shot down the other side. Pete’s tap back attempt on the Kenny stone didn’t draw enough, giving up two. 4-1 to Kenny.

In the sixth end, crucial stones played down the left side of the sheet  all seemed to draw too much. Bill tried to guard, so did JJ, and both left the door wide open. But PJ’s hit on the Kenny shot at nine o’ clock on the four foot also drew off the target. Pete, at a lighter weight, only succeeded in knocking Kenny in for two. JJ ‘s second guard did the trick leaving Pete with a very difficult draw through a small gap. it has to be perfect weight and line but was a shade heavy and when it wrecked on a front stone, the Wilson challenge was extinguished for 2014 as the teams shook hands with the score 6-1 to Kenny. That team will now represent Ireland at the World Seniors back at the Ice Bowl in Dumfries from April 23-30.

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