Bowls: Win over Goldenacre no big surprise, insists Leith chief

Published on Monday 29 June 2009 09:59

LEITH sprung a first-round shock as they belied their Division 2 status to deliver a blow to Division 1 opponents Goldenacre in the Edinburgh Cup, sponsored by Specsavers Opticians.

"We won convincingly 10-2 so it was a great result for us. However, we are sitting clear at the top of our league table and that makes us a Division 1 club in waiting so it's maybe not that big a surprise," commented Leith spokesman Robert Wood.

Leith made their home leg count with good wins on all three rinks while the raiding party at Goldenacre inflicted defeat on two of the home rinks.

Archie Davidson was the main driving force at Leith where he turned an early 5-1 deficit into a 12-5 lead with a run of 4, 4, 3 then he remained well on top to skip Malcolm Milne, Eddie Thomson and Adam Davidson to a 26-12 win over Ronnie Munro.

Drew Dodds was also in fine form to skip Bob Scott, Duncan Davidson and Archie Mackay to a 22 12 win over Alan Muir, having made the vital break with an early run of 6, 2, 1 to lead 12-3.

George Davidson completed the home hat-trick for Leith having benefited from an early purple patch spell of 2, 2, 2, 2 to lead 12-3 then skip Ally Sellars, Robert Storrier and George Fitzgerald to a 19-13 win over Brian Hogg.

Gavin Ramsay was the away hero for Leith, blitzing his way into a 14-0 lead then skipping Alan Thom, Ally Gowans and Jimmy Malcolm to a 22-15 win over Graham Hutchison.

Robert Wood did face danger of defeat at just 17-16 up and two ends to play but he answered the menace with successive singles to skip Alex Walker, Ian Ramsay and Craig Ramsay to a 19-16 win.

Goldenacre grabbed their only win when Malky Thomson skipped Neil Carr, Alan Head and Gavin Barclay to a 21-13 win over John Ramsay having played a magnificent last bowl that killed a 7 for a single to stay ahead at 9-5.

Dudley of Division 2 only managed a 3-3 share of the points on their home leg against Hillside with an 18-17 win for Russell Gray over BJ Smith and a peel for Graham Flight against Gary Muir but did enough on the away leg to beat the Division 1 side.

Other results saw wins for Summerside, Dean, Merchiston, Wardie, Postal, Mayfield, Northers and Corstorphine, who beat Brunstane, West End, Liberton, Maitland, Lutton Place, Whithouse & Grange, Blackhall and Queensberry respectively.