Bowls: Craigentinny and Tanfield reach Edinburgh Cup final

Published on Sunday 17 July 2011 19:33

The Specsavers Edinburgh Cup bowls final at Mayfield on Saturday, August 20 will be a battle of the giants, with Craigentinny and Tanfield convincing winners against lower league opposition in their respective semi-finals.

The Edinburgh Cup is the major knockout club event of the Edinburgh Bowling League and this year's finalists have won it three times since its inception in 1998.

Craigentinny lost to Parkside in last year's final when going for the league and cup double, and with this season's Division 1 title all but wrapped up, they have another chance to snare both accolades.

Their home and away semi -final clash with West End of Division 3 saw the underdogs troublesome on their own patch, with victories on two of the three rinks. However, Craigentinny took no prisoners on their home leg.

"We treated West End with the utmost respect as they performed a giant-killing act on us some three seasons back, so it is good that we learnt from that harsh lesson," said Grant McLaren for Craigentinny.

The two thorns in the Craigentinny flesh were Graham Hockaday and Donnie Gilbertson. who skipped their rinks to battling 19-18 and 16-15 wins over top names Andy Jeffrey and Andy Caldwell. But Jimmy Marshall chalked up an away win for the Division 1 leaders and in great style as he skipped Stuart Betts, Bill Leslie and Stuart McFarlane to a 26-8 triumph over Murray Tait.

Ian Paterson led the home charge at Craigentinny, with the former champion Tait making a blitz start to lead 21-0, then skipping Craig McCall, Kerr McKail and Grant McLaren to a 37-11 win over Grant Pagan.

Gordon Bold also got off to a flying start and included a magnificent 7 as he skipped Paul Robertson, Bill Jackson and Tony McLaren into a 25-2 lead then to a 26-16 win over Rab Aitchison. David Brown was harder pushed to skip Ramsay Stewart, John Shields and Ronnie Douglas to a 19-16 win over Alex White.

Meanwhile, Tanfield progressed with wins on all six rinks against Summerside of Division 2, although the away wins for the rinks skipped by Andy Sneddon and Stuart Campbell were exciting last-end affairs.

Sneddon had an 11-2 lead eroded to peels at 15 before skipping Jamie McIntosh, George McEwan and George Tuff to a double against Martin Watt. Campbell edged back from 9-2 down to skip Sam Daniels, Graeme Swan and Bob White to 13-13 then carded 3 at the last from a brilliant conversion.

Derek McLean met former Tanfield star Keith Taylor and showed him little mercy as he skipped David Snodgrass, Peter Findlay and Kenny Lackie to a 25-12 win. Alex Thompson set the home leg at Tanfield alight by skipping his rink into an 11-0 lead then included a 5 at the 11th as he won 23-9 over John Wood.

Graeme McIntosh came off a 7-12 pace to skip Alan Ross, George Ganson and Bill McLachlan to an 18-14 win over Paul Jeromson, while Paul White, Steven Derrighettie and Keith McLachan led 13-4 and beat Mark Fyfe 16-12.