West Lothians capture of the coveted Andrew Hamilton Trophy was handsome reward for a strong and spirited team performance that earned the East section runners up a 17 shot victory ( 134-117) over Bon Accord in the final of the Cities & Counties Championship played at Ayr Northfield.
Read MoreWhilst pre-match confidence was high in a camp that had a solid record of 10 previous triumphs in the Holy Grail event of County bowling in Scotland there was trepidation and huge respect that they were about to face an opposition that were in top form with nine wins out of nine Bon Accordss fine semi final win over East section winners Edinburgh & Leith was a potent signal that the Cocks of the North were making the long journey South driven by the desire to make it third time lucky having lost the final of 1969 and 1974. 
Making a good start in the national sports bottle-challenging arena of dreams is key to the eventual direction of travel so it was encouraging for the WL support that veteran super star Raymond Logan hit the ground running with a mighty count of 5. West Lothians 12-3 supremacy across the six rinks was a great settler that inspired a successful first phase assault to lead 51-33 after seven ends and its true value can be measured against the 43-37 fight back from Bon Accord that reduced the WL match advantage to 11 (88-77) after 14 ends. End 15 and its menacing 10-5 loss brought more sweat on the WL brows with the margin on the master scoreboard down to 7 however the magnificent response of a 12-0 clean sweep thrust them into a 19 shot lead that was stoutly defended over a testing final straight that was 30 ends long. Victory on the rinks skipped by Raymond Logan, Andy Dunnett, and Neil Speirs helped by a peel for Grant Logan swept WL over the winning line for the first time since 2009 having covered losses by Gary Smith, and Steven Fleming. Logan who won the Scottish Singles title at Northfield in 1998 skipped Darren Pearce, Barry Sword, and Sandy McDougall from 12-9 to 27-9 then onto a 33-17 win over Ross Stewart. Dunnett and his rink of Ewan Shearer, Scott Mushett, and Calum Logan finished 2, 2, 1 to complete a 22-13 win over Roy Henry. Speirs battled on from 13-13 to skip Robbie Cuthill, Scott Logan, and Gary Orr to a 20-18 win over Kevin Pirie. Logan (Grant) was crossed 15-12 from 12-4 up but rallied to skip Jamie Edwards, Blair Mackie, and James Speirs to an 18-18 peel with Andy Thomson. Smith lost 29-20 to Alan McKay while Fleming was piped 22-21 by Kevin Harper.
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