Grant Thomson, a five times club champion of East Linton has converted this season’s triumph into an even more memorable experience by going on to capture the coveted East Lothian Champion of Champions crown.
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The excitingly talented 27 year old – a former junior Scotland cap – weaved his way through a strong field of fellow champions at event venue Haddington to reach a final head to head against Gary Landells of West Barns.
An epic 22-end battle for supremacy went very close to the wire with the rival camps on tenterhooks until Thomson crossed the line with a 21-18 victory that etched his name on the trophy for the first time. Thomson had made an encouraging start to lead 5-0 however was crossed 6-5 before responding with a purple patch spell of 2, 1, 1, (1), 1, 3 that accelerated him into the driving seat at 13-7.
Landells was far from a spent force and a later full house count of 4 kept him menacingly in the picture at 15-18 however Thomson showed strong nerve and composure to keep his opponent at bay. “Gary played a blinder so I was hugely relieved to finish with my nose in front and finally realise my ambition to win this most prestigious of individual East Lothian titles”. The semi finals action saw Thomson in sparkling form to outshine Gordon White of Aberlady, 21-17, while Landells impressed at the 21-15 expense of Castlepark champion, Jamie Frame.
East Lothian celebrated an end of season high with Tranent bringing the Andrew McKellar Inter County Top Five Singles title back to ‘The Garden County’. The EL champions paraded the skills to great effect in the semi finals where they hit the heights to beat Kirkliston in a 3-2 thriller then inspired by taking the scalp of their strongly fancied West Lothian rivals went on to face Border rivals Chirnside. First blood went to Tranent with Adam Martin beating Jamie Mitchell, 21-10, then the 21-7 defeat of Matt Osborne at the hands of Gavin Douglas was answered by icon figure John McCrorie delivering a 21-9 win over Graeme Forsyth. The defeat of Kevin Jones by Robert Paterson in a 21-19 thriller put the title outcome into the melting pot at 2-2 and a sizzling climax saw club champion Kevin Cunningham achieve hero status with a 1, 1 finish to snatch a 21-20 win over Graeme Turner.