Bowls: Pilrig begin their defence with victory over Hillside

Published on Thursday 7 May 2009 09:44

PILRIG emerged from the wilderness that included a spell in Division 2 to capture the Division 1 title of the Edinburgh Bowling League last season and the defending champions are intent on a successful defence of that sought-after crown.

Last night's start to the Alpha Trophies 2009 campaign took place in dismal weather conditions but Pilrig secured a 7-2 home victory over Hillside.

Pilrig's John Geddes said: "Hillside are a competitive team and the first match of the season played in rain and chilling wind added up to a testing time that we coped with rather well."

There were victories for the home rinks skipped by David Poole, Chris Steven and Darren McKenny, but Scott Rogers suffered a setback at the hands of Gary Muir.

Poole caused the biggest splash including mighty counts of five at the fifth and tenth ends as he skipped Darren McArdle, Graham Ward and Geddes to a 34-6 victory over Keith Callagher. Steven had his work cut out at 8-1 down but recovered magnificently to skip Mike Wilson, Euan Craig and Steven Stewart to a 20-14 win over Colin Bell while last-end drama saw McKenny card a double to pip BJ Smith 15-14.

Tanfield were surprise strugglers last season but did just enough to avoid the drop and the record six-times champions put that hiccup behind them to make a flying 9-0 start against visitors Queensberry last night.

Stuart Campbell said: "Our home form in new surroundings last season was extremely poor by our standards so we were determined to get off on the right foot and our players turned in a confident performance."

The four aces to turn up trumps in the Tanfield pack were Graham Munro (30-10), Scott Wood (18-11), Mal Higgenbotham (19-13) and Graeme McIntosh (16-13).

Craigentinny were another major outfit to stumble badly in the early part of last season but they finished like a train and kept up that head of steam with a 9-0 whitewash at home to Dudley.

The successful skips for Craigentinny were: Andrew Jeffrey, Willie McDonald, Ian Paterson and Kevin McFarlane.

Parkside were champions in 2007 and runners up last season and remain a powerful force on paper, however they did drop points in a 7-2 home victory over the newly promoted Goldenacre team.

The opening action in Division 2 saw a clash between last season's two demoted clubs end up in a commanding 8-1 away win for Leith over Dean.

Wardie, who tend to be early-season flyers but end of season dyers, impressed with a 9-0 away win over Maitland while other results saw Niddrie win 7-2 at London Road Foundary and Willowbrae claim a 7-2 victory at home to Postal.