Ballyclare High 1st XV are eagerly awaiting the draw for the fourth round of the Ulster Schools Cup due this Saturday and this week are due to play matches against two of the leading schools in Leinster. Last night (Tuesday) they were entertaining Castle knock College from outside Dublin under the floodlights at Ballyclare Rugby Club and on Saturday will travel to Dublin to take on a strong Clongowes Wood College 1st XV. Last Saturday the Ballyclare boys coached by Dan Soper travelled to play Banbridge Academy and despite not producing their best form managed a 17-7 win which now means that they have 15 victories from 16 starts this season to date. They were missing three regulars notably Hamill,Barkley and Butler. In the first half they played into a strong wind but tended to make errors at times when going forward.But they did enough to get the opening try from a strong back movement resulting in centre McKee going over after winning turn over ball and Holmes added the points for a 7-0 lead.Play improved and in many ways the team did better playing into the strong wind. Another good back move ended with Peter Ferguson who was returning on the wing after injury racing in to score at the corner for a 12-0 half-time lead.
For most of the second half the scoreline remained the same but in the last five minutes Banbridge managed a converted try though there was a doubt about the actual grounding. This appeared to act as a fillip to the visitors and following a well worked short penalty winger Ferguson got over near the corner to score his second try which put Ballyclare 17-7 ahead. and this was the final score. Again there was an excellent performance by numbereight Jonny Darling while in the backs Johnny Douglas back in the centre also had a fine game.