East Lothian 8/2 – Scotlawn Bowls

Last weekend the Alex Marshall Arena hosted the Premier League Decider between East Lothian and Midlothian and what an encounter it was with a large crowd enjoying a thrilling spectacle from the first to the last end. It was the Garden County gents who hit the ground running and in the early stages of the game had opened up a 14 shot lead which at the 10 ends stage Midlothian had reduced to six shots.

The game was nip and tuck over the next five ends and at the fifteen end stage the Garden County still held a four shot lead. It was over the next six ends though that the Midlothian team who had led the league all season battled hard to outscore East Lothian 28 shots to 13 to eventually win the game by 11 shots (71-82) in a score which did not do credit to how close and competitive a game it had been. Therefore it’s Midlothian who now face Falkirk in the final on 23rd February. Top scorers for East Lothian were Joe Mower’s rink who won 29-15 against the rink of Ronnie Duncan, although they had led by 20 shots after fifteen ends before the opposition fought back. Derek Oliver was involved in a tight game with Graeme Archer throughout but always held the aces to run out 16-14 victors. The rinks of Scott Kennedy and Colin Walker were also involved in a tight game with the lead changing hands on a few occasions before the Midlothian rink finished stronger to win 22-20. The game which made the difference was Billy Mellors’ rink against David Peacocks’ where the East Lothian rink did not have their best day at the office, however, they came up against four players in form, especially the back end of Scott Briggs and Davie Peacock who were in inspired form in a 6-31 win. The Garden County gents will aim to bounce back in the Cup this weekend when they travel to West Lothian to take on newly promoted Coatbridge which will be a tough fixture and the following team has been named:
Lewis Betts, Kevin Cunningham, Steven Morgan & Jamie Higgins (Skip)
Aaron Betts, Dougie Berwick, Dean Riva & Derek Oliver
Mark Yuill, Robbie Shields, Chris Brock & Scott Kennedy
Andy Jeffrey, Calum Darling, Stuart Thomson (Cpt) & Joe Mower

County young gun Megan Kivlin is off to Belfast this weekend with the Scotland Under 25 ladies team for the international series. Megan is third to Gemma Forrester from Abbeyview with Lauren Roddie (Stonehaven) and Dawn Anderson (Auchinleck) front end.

The Ladies are due to begin their Scottish Cup Campaign this Saturday with a trip to Tweedbank to play neighbours Midlothian who lost out in the Scottish League Final last Saturday. This should be a cracker of the game and gives our ladies an opportunity to show their metal against the league runners-up and the following team has been selected with Megan unavailable:
M Murray, K Hoggan, D Hoggan & Y Veitch (Skip)
M Penman, B Riva, M Thomson & J Fairnie
J McFarlane, G Mackintosh, E Logan & L Baillie-Whyte

The first game in the Senior Scottish Cup was played at Midlothian last Wednesday when the Auld Yins ran out comfortable 10-0 winners over Tweedbank. The Seniors were due to return to Midlothian on Wednesday to face Abbeyview who received a walk over when Berwickshire were unable to raise a team. The following team was selected:
Lessel Middler, David McGill, Ronnie Douglas & W W Wood (Skip)
Jimmy Neilson, J P Hamilton, Alastair Russell & Andy Burt
B J Smith, Davie Pryde, Gordon Gray & Dougie Berwick
Alan Valentine, Tom Rattray, Peter Fallen & Tom Young (Captain)

On the home front the Jock Brodie Seniors Trophy, Sponsored by N T Craig Haddington & Tom Young Plumbing & Electrical Services Dunbar will also be being played at the Alex Marshall Arena with East Lothian taking on Tweedbank and Bainfield playing Headwell. The team for East Lothian is:
Alex Stewart, Duncan Hogg, Ian James & Willie Franklin (skip)
Kenny Glen, Jim McLeod, George Arnott & George Gray (skip)
Kenny Boyd, Martin McIntyre, Ross Maguire & Ali McKenna (skip)

Last Sunday the Alex Marshall Arena hosted the East of Scotland Youth Pairs and Triples finals in which both our pair of Melissa Penman and Lewis Betts and our triple of Aaron Betts, Kieran Dodds and Danny Stevenson reached their respective finals. Melissa and Lewis Betts retained the pairs trophy, won by Melissa and Robbie Shields later year, with a win over the Bainfield pair of Andrew Jamieson and Abby Cairns. However, our triple lost out in a well contested final to a triple from East Fife who rotated their team of Hannah Pirie, Amy Blyth, Rachel Pirie and Emma Blyth.

East Lothian youths were at home to Bainfield last Saturday in their sixth game in the East of Scotland League and recorded an excellent 7-0 victory. The rink of Danny Stevenson was behind early on in his game, however, a run of 1,3,2,4 put him in control and he finished a 15-9 winner. Lewis Betts rink started well in their game to open up an 8-1 lead but were overtaken 8-9 before having the edge over the final few ends to run out 13-11 victors. Meanwhile the rink of Aaron Betts was always in control in their game and won 11-5. The win now puts East Lothian on 34 points from six games and are in pole position to retain their title. In addition to the league game on Saturday there were pairs and triples challenge matches in which Daniel Kivlin and Liam Fender in the pairs and Daniel Gillies, Finlay Borthwick and Sam Penman in the triples both recorded convincing wins against their Bainfield counterparts. The youths have no league game now until Saturday 2nd March and will be progressing their internal youth ties each week until then. Their next game in the Top Ten is at home against Ardrossan on Sunday 17th February at 11am.

The clubs caterers Mumm’s are hosting a Bite’n’Blether event today Thursday 7th February and continuing every second Thursday which will involve live music with Anita Watman together with food and a drink for £3.