Bowls: E&L have it covered with Roofline win

Published on Monday 31 August 2009 09:59

EDINBURGH & LEITH showed their national bowls title-winning form by making a successful defence of the Roofline Scotland Trophy in the £1,000 Under-25 Inter County League Cup involving opposition from West Lothian, Midlothian and Border at Sighthill.

E&L shared top spot on points with West Lothian but won with a plus of 59 shots to seven.

"It was a great day and a great result but hard earned," said E&L Under-25 convener Bernie Callaghan. E&L stuck with the same six skips for the three sessions: Colin Hutchison, Chris Southwell, Russell Wilson, Paul O'Donnell, George Kirk and John McDermott.

E&L's Player of the Day was Mark Hogg of Goldenacre, while the Rink of the Day comprised Jamie McIntosh (Tanfield), Ross Noble (Sighthill), Robert Mitchell (Carrick Knowe) and Russell Wilson of Juniper Green.

The Wilson four won all three of their games. E&L looked like they were going to win the five-man Penalty Kick feature having beaten West Lothian 3-1 then led Midlothian 2-0 in the final, but the opposition won the next three.

E&L's day started on a disappointing note as they suffered an 87-80 defeat to West Lothian despite wins on four rinks, skipped by Wilson (17-13), O'Donnell (13-1), Kirk (17-13), and McDermott (16-11). But West punished them on the other two with Andrew Semple crushing Southwell 23-6 and Ewan Wilson beating Hutchison 16-11.

However, second-session wins for Hutchison (20-6), Wilson (13-12), and McDermott (14-8) helped secure an 85-74 win over Midlothian as they more than covered the losses sustained by Southwell (10-14), O'Donnell (12-15), and Kirk (16-19).

Meanwhile, Midlothian had defeated Border 96-84 on the first session but Border surprised West Lothian 80-74 on the second so all four teams entered the final session with two points each.

West Lothian beat Midlothian 84-77. E&L's O'Donnell blazed a spectacular 20-0 trail against Border then produced a sizzling 6, 3, 5 finish to skip Jamie Reid, Craig Ramsay and Stuart Jenkins to a 34-8 win over David Kerr.

Wilson skipped McIntosh, Noble and Mitchell to a 29-6 win, while Hutchison skipped Neil Watson, Martyn Dickson, and Mark Hogg to a 15-10 victory.

McDermott skipped Kerr McKail, Colin Tough, and Craig Aitken into a 13-4 lead and they held on for a 13-11 win over Greg Nagle.

Kirk skipped Craig McArthur, Daniel Gormlay and Kyle Newall to a 3, 1, finish while Dean Thomson, Neal Rooney, Jamie Gracie and Southwell lost 15-13 to Kevin Donaldson.