Bowls: E&L on shaky ground for Cities & Counties finale

Published on Monday 15 June 2009 10:02

EDINBURGH & LEITH may yet qualify from the East section of the Cities & Counties Championship, writes STEWART MEIKLE, but the Capital's elite bowlers endured a shaky 130-116 victory over foot-of-the-table Stirling East at Parkside.

Whilst the win was welcome after two defeats on the trot the shot margin of 14 was meagre for a team that is now 28 adrift of second placed East Lothian going into the final round of section fixtures.

Wins for the rinks skipped by James Hogg, Colin Hutchison and Paul O'Donnell were sufficient to cover the defeat of Mal Higgenbotham, Colin Mictehll and Robert Marshall.

E&L should have benefited from a 12-0 flying start from James Hogg and a sizzling count of 6 for Colin Mitchell on his opening end but all the team had to show for it at the end of the first seven-end phase was a lead of 39-36.

The home won the second phase 52-32 but it all turned sour with Stirling clawing back nine shots (48-39) on the run in.

Hogg skipped John Ramsay, Johnny Priestley and Darren Hush to a spectacular 33-6 win over Gary Crosbie having dominated the final phase 14-0.

Hutchison skipped Kevin Hunter, Scott Rogers and Jamie Gracie to a 25-11 victory over Lloyd Ramsay and O'Donnell skipped Alan Trotter, Darren McKenny and Robert Donaldson to a 23-21 win over Roy Ross.