Bowls: Mackintosh lands silverware with polished performance

Rosemary MACKINTOSH is used to polishing silverware as the mother of Scott and Gillian who include last season’s Scottish Mixed Pairs Trophy among their collection of prizes. But now the London Road Foundry champion has made her own special contribution to the family haul of bowling treasure.

The Mackintosh name is now etched proudly on the famous Steel Trophy of the Edinburgh Women’s Bowling Association after she captured the Champion of Champion’s title with a sparkling display in finals day hosted by Whitehouse & Grange.

The finals are the showcase event of the EWBA and Mackintosh captured the blue riband crown of ladies bowling in the Capital by dethroning reigning champion Shona Johnstone of Tipperlinn who was bidding to make it five titles in a row.

Both players paraded their wide range of skills to a high level in a cracking 27-end encounter that kept the busy banking well entertained and the result hung excitingly in the balance until Mackintosh clinched victory with a single to win 21-19.

It was a tense climax that at one stage had looked unlikely, with Mackintosh leading the defending champion 7-0 then kicking on from 8-3 to 15-3 with a purple patch of 1, 4, 2 that had her support in raptures.

But Johnstone is a great campaigner with a strong will to win and, having battled back to 16-10, she held a further three shots until Mackintosh killed that growing menace with a brilliant trail conversion for two shots to 18-10.

Mackintosh pressed on to have Johnstone at her 20-13 mercy, but it was far from game over with the legend from Tipperlinn fighting her way to 19 with a tenacious run of 1, 1, 2, 2 that had the ladies on the banking on the edges of their seats.

“My confidence grew in leaps and bounds after making a strong start, then when Shona began to bring me under pressure I determined to stay focused and can tell you that I am over the moon and chuffed to bits at winning the Steel Trophy”, said Mackintosh.

Mackintosh is a three times club champion of LRF and her first success in 2001 saw her make a strong bid to add the Steel Trophy. She was only frustrated by losing to Linda Gilzean in the final.

Last year she made a first round exit in the Steel to Johnstone who went on to reign as the Champion of Champions for a sixth time.

Beechwood champion Betty Eaton was forced by injury to retire from last year’s final and her bid to renew rivalry with Johnstone in this year’s final was only denied by losing to Mackintosh in the semi-final.