Budding starlets David Young, Craig Mackintosh and Dean Riva have brought further national title glory to East Lothian Indoor Bowling Club with the exciting talents capturing the SYIBA National Under 17 triples title at the Alex Marshall Arena last Sunday.
All three players produced outstanding bowling throughout the day and won all five games to win the group and the title by beating West of Scotland, Whiteinch, Ardrossan, Abbeyview and Aberdeen. Meanwhile it was not to be for last year’s pair’s champions Megan Kivlin and Lewis Betts after they could only manage two wins in their group play and had to surrender the title to Prestwick. The national success for the triples rounded off another very successful weekend for the youth side as they won their latest East of Scotland Junior League fixture – defeating East Fife at home 7-0 last Saturday morning then a few hours later made the trip to Stirling and booked a place in the semi-final of the SYIBA National Top Ten following a convincing 6-2 away win. Dean Riva put in a superb team captain’s performance by winning his singles clash 21-4 while the pair of David Young and Lewis Betts won 13-7. Aaron Betts, Robbie Buchanan and Craig Mackintosh emerged with a 21-10 triumph in the triples while Robbie Shields, Kieran Dodds, Cameron Shaw and Megan Kivlin were narrowly defeated 15-14 in the fours clash. The side now faces Prestwick Ambassador on away terrority on Sunday March 20.
The final stages of the joint Scottish Indoor Senior Bowls Championships took place at Prestwick IBC last weekend and East Lothian champions Jim Robertson and Willie Wood MBE ambitions of landing the gents senior pair’s title were thwarted at the final hurdle when they suffered a 20-12 defeat against Alexander Ness and Jim Vallance of Falkirk. In the semi-final action, the garden county pairing produced a sensational finale in their clash with Forfar to register an 18-8 triumph.
East Lothian IBC’s newly crowned national gent’s junior singles champion Ewan Fallen is the crowd puller to Llanelli IBC in Wales next week as he bids to enhance his national title success by adding the British Isles crown. The garden county star bid for title glory starts on Monday at 6.30pm with Welsh champion Ross Owen providing the opposition in his opening round clash. Fallen’s quest for British title glory is being supported and sponsored by garden county legend Jock Brodie.
The talented trio of Emma Logan, Dee Hoggan and Yvonne Veitch represents the East Lothian banner in the Scotland senior side at this weekend’s Ladies British Isles Home International series at Llanelli IBC. Logan will participate in her sixth consecutive series since her debut in 2011 while Hoggan and Veitch are set to make their full cap debuts.
The men’s side progressed through to the quarter-final of the Scottish Cup following a hard fought 73-64 win over fellow premier league opposition Paisley in last Saturday’s second round action at Cumbernauld IBC. Wins on the rinks skipped by Derek Oliver (+12) and Billy Mellors (+5) carried the day for East Lothian although Paisley did inflict the pain of defeat, albeit narrowly, on the rinks skipped by captain Scott Kennedy (-3) and Jamie Higgins (-5). The draw for the quarter-finals has pitched East Lothian against Division 1 opposition in the shape of Balbardie and the clash will be staged tomorrow (Saturday) at Abbeyview IBC in Dunfermline. Team news from the East Lothian camp is that Alex Marshall MBE is an absentee so the selectors have announced an unchanged line-up which reads:- M.Johnston, A.Burt, E.Fallen, J.Higgins skip L.Middler, D.Berwick, J.Mower, B.Mellors skip M.Higgenbotham, J.Gordon, S.W.Thomson, D.Oliver skip A.Jeffrey, G.Blair, G.Robertson, S.Kennedy capt/skip
The ladies side hopes of landing the Scottish Cup title for a first time ended in failure with the elite from East Lothian IBC stalling 99-83 against defending champions Midlothian in the quarter-final action at Bainfield IBC last Saturday. The garden county side expected a tough challenge from their premier league opposition but the task was made much tougher as they went into the clash missing top stars in the shape of Emma Logan, Janet Fairnie and Nancy McNeil.
“Even with a full strength team it was always going to be a difficult task against a strong Midlothian side but I asked the team to enter the battle with a positive attitude and I feel our makeshift team and recast line-up put up a bold show”, said team manager Sheena Currie. An excellent 30-21 win on the rink skipped by Alicia Irvine kept East Lothian in the picture but ultimately in the end it failed to cover the defeats sustained by Margaret Thomson (-6), Yvonne Veitch (-8) and Irene Gray (-11).
The qualifying action in the Jock Brodie Senior Challenge Cup, sponsored by Norman T Craig and Co-operative Funeralcare, continued at the Alex Marshall Arena last Wednesday and Perth come out on top 6-2 in a cracking encounter against Midlothian while West Lothian defeated Berwickshire by a similar scoreline. The action continued on Wednesday when Midlothian tackled Perth while the other clash featured West Lothian against Berwickshire.
The talented youth side are back in action tomorrow (Saturday) as they head over the River Forth to participate in the East of Scotland Top 10 event at East Fife IBC in Methil.
Turning attention to the fast approaching outdoor season and bowling members of Cockenzie & Port Seton Bowling Club are reminded that their AGM will take place on Tuesday evening with President Steven Morgan getting proceedings underway at 7pm.
All outdoor club secretaries are reminded the AGM of the East Lothian Bowling Association takes place at Haddington BC on Wednesday from 7pm. Two representatives from each affiliated club are formally requested to attend the meeting.
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