East Lothian young star Megan Kivlin was last weekend part of a Scotland Ladies Under 25 side that captured the British Isles Under 25 International Championships for only the second time in their history.
The championships were staged at Islwyn IBC in Wales and in the opening session on Saturday afternoon the young Scots delivered wins on three rinks with only the rink Kivlin was part of losing to the highly talented Katherine Rednall of England. Going into Sunday mornings second session on play Scotland required three rinks to emerge victorious to claim the title and they duly delivered to take their points total to 12 and finished ahead of defending champions England by two points. Kivlin’s rink scored a magnificent victory over Wales in their second match. The great triumph means that for the very first time Scotland are currently holding both the Acle Trophy as Under 25 champions and the Johns Trophy as Senior International champions at the same time. Meanwhile, this weekend Joe Mower returns to his native Wales as part of the Scotland Gents Under 25 team who travel to Newport IBC hoping to try and complete an Under 25 double. Mower will win first cap for Scotland when he ironically lines-up against Wales in the opening match of series on Saturday morning. In the afternoon, the young Scots go head to head with Ireland before facing a Sunday morning showdown with defending champions and auld enemy England.
East Lothian IBC men’s side will not be stretching their number of Scottish Cup wins from seven to eight as the defending champions crashed to a shock 8-2 points defeat from lowly Division 2 side Fraserburgh in the first-round proper action at Arbroath IBC last Saturday. It was mostly pain without any gain for the garden county with Fraserburgh inflicting defeat on the rinks skipped by Graham Robertson, Scott Kennedy and Mark Johnston although two of the three were hard fought battles. The only positive outcome for East Lothian was another great win posted by the young dream team of Calum Darling, Lewis Betts, Glenn Blair and Joe Mower.
“I can’t put my finger on why but we completely underperformed out there today but all credit must go to Fraserburgh as from the opening to last end they played out their skins and without doubt deserved to win the match”, summed up a dejected team captain Graham Robertson.
The senior side dreams of extending their number of title wins to four in the Scottish Senior Cup were ended when they suffered a nightmare 6-4 points defeat at the hands of Dunfermline based side Abbeyview in the first-round action at West Lothian IBC last Wednesday. The garden county ‘auld yins’ were well served and given every chance of success by good wins for the rinks skipped by Willie Wood MBE (+10) and Peter Laidlaw (+4) but hopes of national cup success were destroyed by the defeats of Tommy Young (-13) and Alastair Russell (-15). “Unfortunately, we were unable to produce our best form on a very fast paced surface at West Lothian and we were always on the back foot from the very start”, commented senior team convenor John Hamilton.
Meanwhile the qualifying play in the Jock Brodie Senior Challenge Cup, sponsored by Norman T Craig and Co-operative Funeralcare, resumed on Wednesday when host club East Lothian tackled Teviotdale while the other tie featured Headwell against West Lothian.
After a lengthy lay off the ladies’ side return to competitive action on Saturday as the ladies’ Scottish Cup swings into first round round action with the elite of East Lothian IBC making the trip to Tweedbank IBC in Galashiels to tackle local rivals Midlothian. The absence of world stage star in the shape of Lauren Baillie is a major concern however there is a compensating high for Team Manager Sheena Currie with the return to the line-up of ace skip Janet Fairnie. Youngster Megan Penman is handed a seasonal debut in a team that reads: – M.Murray, J.Russell, M.Kivlin, E.Logan skip R.Campbell, R.Mackintosh, I.Gray, G.Mackintosh skip M.Penman, M.Hamilton, N.McNeil, Y.Veitch skip P.Turner, C.Ward, M.Thomson, J.Fairnie skip
The youth side scheduled East of Scotland Junior League fixture against Alloa last Saturday morning was the subject of a late postponement and will be rescheduled later to be agreed by both clubs.
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