The finals of this season’s Ladies Inter Zone competitions have been completed with Armagh and Monaghan Zones coming out on top.
In the premier competition, the McElroy Cup, Armagh met Donegal in the final. Armagh were the favourites to pick up their 8th ladies title and in the early stages it looked as if they would run away with the final as they built up an early lead and appeared to be in complete control. On mat 2 Donegal were having a particularly difficult time failing to score until the 9th end out of 10 losing 17 – 1. The other 2 games saw Donegal winning one game 11 – 5 and losing the other 9 – 8 to leave Armagh 31 – 20 up at the half way stage. In the second half, Armagh continued to keep the lead but the Donegal rink on mat 3 with a 19 – 8 win gave them hope. Unfortunately for Donegal they lost on mat 1 15 – 6 and could only draw on mat 2 to leave Armagh 61 – 52 winners.
In the Plate competition it was a Monaghan – Mid Ulster final. This was a very close encounter with little separating the teams and it was a game which could have gone either way. At the interval, Mid Ulster led 30 – 29. The second half ebbed and flowed with the lead changing hands on a regular basis. In the end it was Monaghan who squeezed through 53 – 51.