Bowls: Kirkliston leave best to last to capture Rosebery

Published on Wednesday 24 June 2009 10:22

KIRKLISTON clashed with defending champions Broxburn in the final of the Rosebery Cup at Bellsburn, Linlithgow, and won the trophy for the 20th time with a late spurt.

The 21-end final was on a knife-edge for most of the match with Kirkliston edging the first seven-end phase 30-27 but coming under pressure with the 32-26 loss of the second and responding tenaciously with a 33-25 success on the run-in.

Both teams had two winning rinks with Grant Logan and Neil Speirs successful for Kirkliston while Calum Logan and Mark Allison did the business for Broxburn.

Grant Logan zipped into an 11-1 lead over Ian Laverie then led 18-9 but came under great pressure at 18-18 before skipping Dave McRobbie, Andi Gray and Gordon Logan to a 1,6, 3 finish and 28-18 victory.

Speirs skipped Andrew Suddon, Brian McRobbie and Steven Forrest into a 14-6 lead over George Sneddon then answered pressure at 14-12 with a 1, 1, 3 reply and capitalised on a mistake by their opponents to win 22-16. Broxburn's main trailblazer was Allison, who included a seven as he skipped David Wilson junior, Scott Logan and David Wilson senior into a 19-3 lead over Raymond Logan.

Allison and Co remained in command at 27-9 after 16 ends but their roof caved in as Logan closed to 21 by skipping Jim Gray, Val Jenkins and Derrick Meikle to a 2, 2, 3, 3, 2 finish.

The Broxburn heads may have dipped in the heat of battle but not so with Calum Logan who was still driven by a desire to take the scalp of international skip John Aitken and his rink of Greg Robinson, David Brown and Greg Logan.

Aitken led 18-17 with the match result declared but sportingly agreed to play the final end allowing Logan to produce two thunderbolt strikes that yielded a six for him to skip John Cruickshanks, Mike Nelson and Stewart Grant to a 23-18 win.

"This final of the famous Rosebery Cup was an epic battle that hung in the balance until a late tidal change in favour of Kirkliston," said West Lothian Bowls Association President Gary Clelland afterwards.