Bowls: Portobello no match for Ardrossan

Nicola Barclay played lead to Rosemary Mackintosh and Cathy Ward for Portobello against Kathleen Souden,  Maryanne Cooper and Michelle Cooper and crashed to a 25-10 defeat.

“We opened with a 2 on the first end but it was the sixth end before we managed to double our score to 4 by which times we were 11-4 down then we conceded a 1 and a 4 to 16  and after which there was no way back for us,” explained Barclay.

It may be some consolation to the disappointed Portobello trio that Ardrossan went on to win the section by dishing put defeats to Whiteinch, Midlothian and Headwell to set up a semi-final clash with Arbroath at Fraserburgh on Saturday March 30.

Midlothian fielded a strong trio, at the same venue, in the shape of internationalists Kelly McDougall, Stacey Laidlaw and Gaynor Blair and, having had a walkover against Cowal in the prelims, met Clydebank in the first round proper.

Blair and Co made a disastrous start to trail 9-0 after six ends but came alive with a mighty 5 at the seventh and  a 4 at the eighth then answered the loss of a single with a  run of 4, 2, 2, 1, 1 to take command at 19-10 then win 19-16.

The travelling support from Dalkeith expected their star trio to have the measure of Ardrossan in the second-round clash but Midlothian were eclipsed 25-12 having made a shocking start to trail 10-1 after six ends then 17-2 after ten.

East Lothian also made the journey to Glasgow IBC and expectations were high that Yvonne Veitch, Margaret Thomson and Emma Brown would carry the banner forward with both the lead and skip of international calibre.

Brown’s rink launched their campaign against West of Scotland in the first round proper and found themselves engaged in a ding-dong battle at 8-7 up after eight ends but exploded to 17 with a burst of 3 and 6 that set them up to win 21-17.

Headwell stood between EL and a place in the section final and the prospects of Brown and Co looked on the up when carding a super count of 6 at the eighth end to cross into a 10-6 lead.

A long barren spell that lasted a damaging seven ends, though, allowed the Dunfermline rink of Elenor Kennedy, Claire Walker and Sarah Ewing back into the driving seat at 16-10 ad even a fighting 1, 1, 2 finish failed to save East Lothian from a  16-14 defeat.