Bowls: Capital starlets get off to flyer

Published on Tuesday 5 May 2009 09:52

EDINBURGH & LEITH'S bid to emulate their title-winning campaign of 2007 in the Under-25 Scottish League Bowls Cup got off to a great start at Corstorphine with the Capital starlets in great form to beat Border 129-89, writes STEWART MEIKLE.

Skips Colin Hutchison (Goldenacre), Jamie Gracie (Sighthill), Paul O'Donnell (Bainfield), Chris Steven (Pilrig) and John McDermott (Sighthill) remain from the 2007 line-up with George Kirk of Blackhall joining them.

McDermott lost a single at the last end to finish peels otherwise it would have been a clean sweep for a team that just edged Border 38-37 after seven ends.

The second phase brought a spectacular transformation with a 13-1 and 8-1 contribution from O'Donnell and Gracie respectively inspiring E&L to a 54-24 domination and the home team went on to outscore their rivals 37-28 on the third.

Gracie skipped Dean Thomson, Neal Rooney and Chris Southwell to a 24-7 win over Andrew Hancock while Steven led Stephen Stewart, Robert Mitchell and Nicky Brown to a 28-18 win over Mark Alexander.

Kirk skipped Craig Aitken, Kyle Newall and Russell Wilson to a 22-16 win over Kevin Donaldson while Hutchison led Neil Watson, Euan Craig and Derek Smith to an 18-14 win over Greg Nagle.

O'Donnell led Kerr McKail, Craig Ramsay and Scott Noble to a 19-16 win over Ross Nichol while McDermott's rink of Mark Hogg, Neil Mackintosh and Andrew Caldwell came off a 10-16 pace to finish peels at 18 with Chris Young.