Bowls: Big win over Falkirk a boost for Bainfield

“We did have home advantage but Falkirk have continued to be a hot handful since their impressive run of form last season so it is a great lift to our morale that we beat them on three rinks and went close in the fourth,” said team manager John Bell.

Wins for the rinks skipped by Gavin Smith, Robert Marshall and Colin Hutchison put the shine on the Bainfield performance and were only minimally tarnished by the narrow defeat of Paul O’Donnell.

Bell had pre-match hopes that Falkirk would find the Bainfield carpet difficult to settle on in the early stages due to its slow pace and so was delighted when the home team set up a 13-shot lead after just two ends.

“Robert Marshall carded a mighty 5 on his first end and Colin Hutchison went one better with a super 6 on his second end and that was a dream start for us in terms of firing up the team challenge,” added Bell.

Falkirk, as expected, were no pushover and although Bainfield gained the upper hand on all three of the seven-end phases they were forced to battle for their ascendancy, winning the first 32-19, the second 23-18 and the third 30-27.

“Events elsewhere went in our favour with the result that we are now a safe looking eight points ahead of bottom club Coatbridge, and an encouraging four ahead of the other relegation zoned club Midlothian,” explained Bell.

Smith skipped Chris Downie, Brian Stoddart and John  McDermott to an excellent  27-11 win that included a magnificent 7 against Tom  Cochrane.

Despite his great start, Marshall found himself being held at 10-10 after 13 ends before skipping Neil Watson, Colin Gilchrist and James Hogg to a sensational run of 4, 2, 4 and 5 that set them up for a 26-19 win over Simon Thomson’s rink. Hutchison also came under early pressure but picked up from 11-10 to skip Daniel Gormley, Paul Millar and Craig Moss into a 20-14 lead before having to settle for a 20-19 win over Steven Glen.

O’Donnell and his rink of Craig Paterson, Stuart Patterson and Alan Brown lost 15-12 to Jim McHutchison’s rink in a low-scoring game.