Bowls: Porty celebrate lifting first Scottish Seniors Triples title

Portobello grabbed a share of the national indoor bowls limelight thanks to the efforts of star trio Eddy Tomany, Jim McLeod and BJ Smith in capturing the Scottish Seniors Triples title in the inaugural championships played at Falkirk IBC.

Having battled their way through to the final stages of the Seniors Championships, Smith and Co raised the expectations of their travelling support with an impressive 24-6 win over Ardrossan in the semi-finals.

"We made a 2, 1, 3 start that worked wonders for our confidence then at 10-6 we produced a spectacular run of 3, 1, 2, 7, 1 that took us through to the final on a tremendous high," said Smith.

Buchan stood between Portobello and the silverware and they proved to be formidable opposition as Alistair Will skipped Mike Baxter and Les Robertson into a 9-4 lead over the slow-to-start Portobello trio.

However, a magic transformation was in the offing and it came in the shape of an exciting Porty fight-back as Messrs Tomany, McLeod and Smith conjured up a run of 3, 1, 1, 1, to cross 10-9 then they answered the loss of a single with a 4, 2, 1 finish to triumph 17-10.

"Our men's team suffered relegation to Division 2 of the national leagues in the recently completed campaign so the Portobello club needed a lift to pride and spirit and the success of our Triple is a perfect answer to that," said spokesman Tony McLaren.

The Balbardie rink of Dan Miller, Davy Brash, Alex Smith and Ritchie Templeton made a 21-10 exit in the semi-finals of the Fours to Garioch who went on to capture the title at the 24-15 expense of Ardossan.

Willie Wyles, of East Fife, beat Peter Forsyth, of Elgin, 21-11 in the final of the Singles while Coatbridge beat Prestwick 13-8 to win the Pairs title.

Meanwhile, East Lothian stepped up their defence of the Scottish Cup with an impressive 85-69 win over Auchinleck at West of Scotland IBC in the first round proper.

"Our major stars, Alex Marshall and Paul Foster, were both absentees and we were playing a seriously strong fellow Premier League club so I think this result is our best performance of the season," said team captain Mal Higgenbotham.

Scott Kennedy - a former national singles champion - was returned to skip and along with Graham Robertson and Willie Wood they produced winning performances that covered the narrow defeat of Derek Oliver.

Kennedy emerged the highest flyer - skipping Higgenbotham, Ross Thomson and Jamie Higgins to an inspiring 23-12 win over fellow cap Steven Rankin.

Robertson converted a 10-2 lead into a 22-17 win over Derek McClue while Wood came late to pip Colin Smith 19-17. Oliver lost a hard-fought battle 23-21 to Gary Johnstone.

"The club needed a lift to pride and spirit and the success of our Triple is a perfect answer to that" - Tony mcLaren