Bowls: Northern make the most of home green advantage

Published on Tuesday 30 June 2009 09:44

NORTHERN made home green advantage pay in their opening match of the Edinburgh and Leith Top Five Singles for the Ian McFarlane Bowls Trophy beating Corstorphine 3-1.

Corstorphine were given the perfect start for an away team with Jamie Savage putting them 1-0 up after blitzing Hugh Hilson 21-2 in a super-quick 15 ends.

But Mike Burns got the Northern challenge up and running with a 21-12 win in 17 ends over Bob Page.

Ian Miller followed up with a 21-6 success over Bobby Brown in 16 ends having produced a strong run to 12-2 then answering the loss of successive singles to 4 with a run of 1, 1, 3 to have his opponent at his 17-4 mercy.

Win No.3 for the home side looked very unlikely when former Queensberry player Gordon Wilson found himself 13-7 adrift of Stevie Ritchie and the Corstorphine ace remained very much in command at 20-15.

However, Wilson had a sting in his tail and in a nail-biting climax he saved the game when he conjured up last-bowl conversions that yielded 1, 3, 1, 1 and a 21-20 victory.

Instead of 2-2 going into the remaining game it was a 3-1 result for Northern, however, they were looking good on match five anyway with George Prentice holding a 19-12 lead over Alan Sharp.

&#149 SIGHTHILL B made a whopping difference to their standing in the West Edinburgh First Sixteens League with a 9-0 whipping of Fountain in the top of the table clash.

The runaway winners leapfrogged their victims to top the table with 57 points followed by previous leaders Fountain and Ardmillan A who are on the 49-point mark.

Ardmillan A also benefited from a superb 9-0 away win at Gorgie Mills while Bainfield A scored an 8-1 home win over foot of the table Sighthill A to stand in fourth place with 46 points.

Stenhouse had the chance to go clear at the top of the Second Sixteens League but fluffed it with a 7-2 defeat away to Ardmillan B and they have settle as joint-top with Currie, who were without a match, on 56 points.

Colinton A managed a 5-2 away win over North British Distillery and occupy third place with 52 points in the bank.