Bowls: Bainfield pair Downie and Hutchison win national title

Bainfield IBC are celebrating a national title success with their domestic champion duo of Chris Downie and Colin Hutchison capturing the Scottish 2 Bowl Pairs Crown in the finals at Ardrossan.

Hutchison, 26, skipped Downie, 30, to commanding victories over Fraserburgh then Falkirk in excellent style to bring the title to Bainfield for a third time, following in the footsteps of Frazer Muirhead and Robert Marshall (92/93), and Alec Ross and Alex Marshall in the 96/97 season.

It is a triumph that will be welcomed throughout Capital bowling circles as both players are prominent on the Edinburgh scene and for each player it is a first national title under either indoors or outdoors.

“Winning titles and gaining recognition are the higher rewards you are seeking from pursuing an amateur sport so its great that we achieved this success to add to gaining international caps at Junior Scotland level,” said Hutchison.

Downie is a former player of the sadly defunct Edinburgh IBC who he represented in the Under-25 International campaigns of 2002/03/05 to win nine caps while he is also a product of that rich seam of talent produced by Tranent in East Lothian.

Hutchison is from Goldenacre who achieved 15 Under-25 caps for the Bainfield camp playing in the series of 2006/07/08/09/10. He has also been prominent on the outdoor scene with six Junior International campaigns to his name plus the Tait Trophy, The Fleming Trophy, District Singles, and EBL Singles, all in his locker.

John Bell, the team manager of Bainfield, is over the moon at two of his players adding to the national title record of current squad, saying: “It is exciting for me that Chris and Colin are now up they’re besides Robert Marshall, Alan Brown, Craig Paterson, Craig Moss, and Paul O’Donnell as it boosts the morale in our push for promotion to the Premier League.”

The final against Gary Hutchison and David Taylor of Falkirk went to a third-set decider with Bainfield dominating the first set to win it 9-4 having carded three shots on the opening end then building a 9-1 lead.

Falkirk edged the second set 5-4, having tipped the scales with a single on the last end, but the third set was a runaway for Downie and Hutchison as their scintillating play produced a run of 1, 1, 4, 1, 2 to win 9-0.

The Fraserburgh father and son of Derek and Scott Murray proved to be stiff opposition in the semi-final where it took a single at an extra end for Bainfield to tip the first set, 7-6 in their favour.

The second set also produced a thrilling climax with Downie and Hutchison conjuring up a magic double at the last to snatch a 7-6 win that secured their place in the final.