Bowls: Tanfield collect Edinburgh Cup in dramatic last end

Published on Thursday 20 August 2009 09:55

TANFIELD's season of mostly heartbreak finished on a fantastic high as the club made a successful defence of the Specsavers Opticians-sponsored Edinburgh bowls Cup, defeating Northern on shot margin (+21) in the final at Corstorphine.

The bare facts hide a sensational last-bowl triumph that denied Northern the 8-4 glory and tied the match at 6-6 in what will go down in the records as the most memorable climax in the 12 seasons of the competition.

"We had both hands on the trophy so our 24-strong team and support were totally gutted when Tanfield spirited it away with what was a truly fantastic delivery," said Northern president Gary Harrison.

The hero for Tanfield was Stuart Campbell, who entered the last end of the final standing all square with Roy Campbell and, faced with immense pressure, conjured up a take-out conversion to win 17-15.

Tanfield drew first blood with Bill McLachlan making a lively start to lead 13-4 then skipping George Tuff, Stephen Derrigetty and Kenny Lackie to a 29-11 victory over Steve Nicol, Alex Young, Ian MacDonald and Stan Christie

The favourites went 4-0 up with Mal Higgenbotham benefiting from a late run of 4, 2, 1, 3 to skip Alan Ross, Peter Findlay and Derek McLean to a 30-13 win over Andy Irving, Darren Prentice, Jim Bathgate and Gordon Wilson.

Northern were not overawed, however, and Hugh Hilson got them off the mark by skipping Gary Largue, Willie Robb and Ian Millar from 6-7 to 13-7 and on to a 19-11 success over Alex Caldwell, George McEwan, Graeme Quinney and Charlie McLaren.

Then Allan Mitchell made it 4-4 when, in a nail-biting climax, he skipped Grant Young, Ronnie Scott and Graeme Prentice to a 12-11 win over Jamie McIntosh, Stuart Thompson, Willie Paul and Graeme McIntosh.

Mike Burns sent the Northern pulse rates racing as he added 1, 4, 3 to lead 16-7 then skip Jim Martin, Kenny Dixon and Jimmy Henderson to a 20-13 win over Pat White, Alistair Thompson, Alex Thompson and Graham Munro.

The final spotlight then focused on Neil Buchanan, Marshall Shearer, Scott Wood and Stuart Campbell for Tanfield and Robert Bain, Gary Harrison, Robert Lee and Roy Campbell of Northern.