Tranent Bowling Club signed off the end of their competitive 2018 outdoor season in fine style by capturing a mainstream national honour for a second consecutive year in the shape of the Andrew D McKellar Scottish Inter-County Top Five Singles Championships played at Sighthill BC in Edinburgh last Sunday.
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For the second year running the final pitched the East Lothian champions against Border rivals Chirnside so the extra dimension of a rematch set the scene for another epic encounter. Tranent emerged the 3-2 winners from a melting pot situation that sizzled from start to finish and with temperatures reaching fever pitch the climax was a cauldron of excited anticipation in both camps. First blood went to Tranent with John McCrorie beating Jamie Mitchell, 21-16, and then the 21-12 defeat of Matt Osborne was answered by club president Davie Whitson delivering a 21-15 win. The defeat of Adam Martin in a 21-19 thriller put the title outcome into the melting pot at 2-2 and a sizzling climax saw Kevin Jones achieve hero status with a grandstand style finish that swept him over the line to clinch game and title with a 21-18 win over Graeme Forsyth. The semi-final action saw Tranent beat West Fife champions Broad Street and Chirnside beat Newbridge of West Lothian by a similar scoreline. “Winning this prestigious title for a second consecutive year is a great and exciting achievement for our wee club and with us winning the East Lothian title again this year we will be able to forward and defend the Scottish crown next year”, said a proud club president Davie Whitson afterwards.
Scotland cap Billy Mellors, a three times club champion of Haddington Bowling Club 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. The excitingly talented 43-year-old – a former national singles winner – weaved his way through a strong field of fellow champions at event venue Haddington BC to reach a final head to head against Liam Gallagher of Dunbar. It was Mellors who iced the cake on another impressive season by dwarfing his opponent with a commanding 21-13 triumph to etch his name on the trophy for the first time. “Hugely relieved to finally realise an ambition to win this most prestigious of individual East Lothian titles”, said a delighted Mellors.
On the international stage, Dean Riva of EL-Coop was part of a Scotland Under 25 team that successfully defended their British Isles Junior Home International title last weekend at Belmont Bowling Club in Belfast last weekend. For the second successive year the young Scots achieved the sports version of rugby’s Triple Crown, beating Ireland, England and Wales to land the title. They opened the series with a convincing 132-98 win over hosts Ireland then followed that up with a hard fought 108-100 win over England. The final match on Sunday morning was a title decider against Wales and it was an incredibly close match but Scotland just pipped them 128-127 to win and retain the trophy.
Meanwhile there were serious celebrations in the clubhouse at Haddington Bowling Club last Thursday afternoon after their senior brigade won the Division 1 title of the East Coast Carpets sponsored East Lothian Senior Leagues for the first time in the club’s long history. Newcraighall captured the honours in Division 2 while Stenton landed the spoils in Division 3.
East Linton king pin George Cowan Snr is the singles champion again at his beloved club and is celebrating a record breaking tenth title success following a hard-fought win over defending champion Grant Thomson in the final.
Dawn Murdoch was crowned queen of her club for a second time in three years following a thrilling victory over Hazel Fender in the ladies final. Meanwhile the club staged an Open Fours tournament last Saturday in memory of land standing member Ewart Pirie who sadly passed away recently. The tournament was a major success with all money raised on the day being split between the East Linton Day Centre and McMillan Nurses. A team from Ormiston BC, composed of Alex Renton, Eric Stevenson, Dick Veitch and Stewart Johnston, were the eventual winners.
Cockenzie & Port Seton Bowling Club is hosting a celebration event tomorrow (Friday) evening for East Lothian’s Commonwealth Games lawn bowling heroes Derek Oliver and Alex Marshall MBE. Host club king pin Oliver collected two gold medals in his first ever Commonwealth Games while Marshall became Scotland’s most successful Commonwealth Games athlete ever by winning a fifth gold medal in Australia. The celebrations will begin at 7.30pm and double act duo Back2Front will provide live entertainment for invited guests. Club president Steven Morgan said: “Were having a long awaited party to celebrate what Derek and Alex achieved in the Gold Coast. We’re putting on lots of singing, comedy, music and food with a Commonwealth theme – it should be quite a night”.
Turning attention to the indoor season, East Lothian Indoor Bowling Club opens its doors for the new season on a full-time basis today (Thursday) at 10am. The Thursday morning league kicked off competitive proceedings this morning while the Afternoon and Evening Leagues commence this coming week along with the highly acclaimed Top Four tournament. Membership fees and rink fees remain the same at £58 and £3 (£4 non-members) respectively.
Cockenzie and Port Seton Invitation Pairs, sponsored by Platinum Property Services, takes place on Saturday and the draw is as follows:
10am D.Fraser, D.Donnelly, T.Flockhart, D.Middleton, M.McCormack, Prestongrange, J.Martin, A.Jamieson, B.Martin, S.Kennedy, K.Jones, G.Baillie 10.45am M.Greenan, B.Mellors, D.Oliver, J.Higgins, R.Scott, D.Logan, A.Smith, S.Morgan, S.Mackie, D.Mackie, T.Souness, I.Malcolm
Draw for Macmerry BC Open Fours also on Saturday is as follows: 10am R.Emslie (Newcraighall), J.Carpenter, C.Edmonds (Musselburgh), B.Cormack, K.Smith, B.J.Smith (Hillside), B.McKeown, C.Cochrane (ELCO), J.McLean (Hadd), G.Hogg, K.Donaldson, D.Ballingham (Thurston), P.McKeown, B.Maynard 11am G.Bryson, C.Hogg, P.Mair, C.Bonner
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