Bowls: Champions Carrick Knowe face Leith in Top Ten semi

Published on Thursday 11 August 2011 10:52

CARRICK KNOWE step up their defence of the Edinburgh Top Ten title against their great Water of Leith rivals Bainfield in the semi-final action at Dudley tomorrow (2.00pm) while the other clash features EBL clubs Craigentinny and Leith at Maitland.

This week's quarter-finals saw Carrick Knowe crush Beechwood 8-0 and Bainfield dealt Gorgie Mills an exit with the same impressive score while Craigentinny beat Tanfield 6-2 and Leith progressed with a shot-margin win over Colinton.

Paul O'Donnell's form blip at Ayr hasn't blunted his spearhead role for Bainfield and the 25-year-old captured the Singles points at Gorgie Mills with a commanding 21-10 victory over local icon Alan Brown.

And Paul Millar was also in cracking form when skipping Ian Brown, Adam Brock and Stuart Clark to an 18-10 win in the Fours having made the difference with a 3, 2, 2, 1 finish against David Field's skip.

Bainfield's home leg saw Steven Pilley and Craig Paterson beat Dean Thomson and Ross Lauder 26-9 in the Pairs while Graham Fergus, Colin Gilchrist and Brian Stoddart beat Scott Purvis, Archie Priestley and Kevin Jamieson 15-9 in the Triples. Craigentinny's progress was highlighted by a superb 21-7 away win over Andrew Sneddon in the Singles while Ian Paterson skipped Craig McCall, John Shields and David Brown to a 24-12 win over Graeme McIntosh in the Fours.

Tanfield made an away impression with Stuart McKean and Mal Higgenbotham slamming Kevin Hunter and Willie McDonald 26-7 in the Pairs but Darren Smith, Gordon Bold and Kevin McFarlane beat Stuart Campbell 21-6 in the Triples.

n LAST night's quarter-finals of the Edinburgh Bowling League Knockout Championships were all postponed due to adverse weather so fingers are crossed that the last eight of the Tait Trophy will go ahead at Corstorphine tonight (6.30pm).

The top clash features Robert Marshall of Slateford against Scott Mackintosh of London Road Foundry supported by Keith Taylor (Summerside) v Craig Paterson (Bainfield), Tom Headspeath (Beechwood) v Andrew McKendrick (Currie), and Derek McLean (Tanfield) v Larry Sorrell (Wardie).

• NEWBRIDGE continued their winning ways in last night's quarter-finals of the BARBQ sponsored WLBA Top Five Singles but had to go right down to the wire to beat Linlithgow 3-2.

Thomas Mann crushed fellow cap Gary Smith 21-3 to put the home side 1-0 up but the next two went to Linlithgow with Gary Orr beating Drew Paterson 21-17 and David Alexander beating Blair Mackie 21-16.

James Speirs levelled the match at 2-2 with his 21-13 victory over Martin Byrne then, in a dramatic climax, 49-year-old Alec Allan conjured up a magic 2 to pip 39-year-old Graeme Byrne, 21-20. Philpstoun beat Ratho 4-1 while Buchan Park v Bathgate and Blackburn v Seafield were victims of the weather.