Bowls: Bainfield are beaten but not bowed

Arbroath marched on  towards achieving a league and cup double with what was in the end a commanding 86-60 victory over their Division 1  opponents at Dundee but much of the 21-end match was nip and tuck.

Anna Anderson served up a brilliant winning performance for Bainfield but her fellow skips Kathryn O’Donnell, Theresa Blair, and Anne Watson all lost.

Bainfield travelled to Dundee knowing that they looked like cannon fodder for the current big guns of the sport and  although they did trail from start to finish the margin  between the two teams was in single-figure territory for the first 16 ends.

“The major scoreboard showed us within three shots of Arbroath after 15 ends and you can imagine the thrilling thoughts running through my head that we were in touching distance of achieving a shock win over the hot favourites,” said team manager Muriel Old.

End 15 was in fact the scene of intense drama that, had it worked out in favour of Bainfield, would have seen the underdogs hit the front at a vital stage of the match but the script went in favour of Arbroath.

O’Donnell held four shots that, had they made it to the card, would have given Bainfield a 54-50 cross however opposing skip Leanne Furye served up a brilliant strike conversion that yielded her three shots to keep Arbroath in front 53-50. That moment of frustration for Bainfield became a real match-changer as it inspired Arbroath to follow on end counts of, 6-0, 8-3, 5-2, 5-3, 6-1, and 3-1 that added up to a 33-10 ascendancy on the run-in.

Anderson fired up the spirits of the Bainfield camp with a battle-cry start to skip Julie Fairgrieve, Hazel Crombie and Janet Darling into a 17-4 lead after 15 ends after which they remained resolute to achieve a 20-10 win over Trixie McKay.

O’Donnell’s rink lost  22-14 to Furye, Blair’s was outclassed 24-13 by Anderson and Watson’s crew went down  30-13.

Coatbridge beat Auchinleck 83-73, in the other semi-final and now face Arbroath in the final at Falkirk on April 6.