East Lothian 22/2

The Scottish squad were involved in two tremendous tussles with England and Wales which could have went either way and in which some excellent bowls were played by all three teams throughout the game and especially over the last few ends. In the first game of the day the Scotland v England game seen the lead change hand several times until England held a two shot lead on the last end, in which they scored a one to win the game by three despite the best effort of the young Scots. Scotland then faced Wales and despite being twenty shots down early on fought back impressively to lead late on only for some inspired bowls from the last Welsh skip left on (Daniel Salmon) to snatch a draw for the Welsh and end the Scottish hopes of winning the series. The Scottish lads bounced back in impressive style in the last game when they defeated Ireland by 33 shots with all four rinks winning. Joe skipped his rink to two wins by 3 shots twice against Ireland and England, losing narrowly by one shot to Wales while Dean was second in a rink skipped by Darren Weir which also won two games by 18 shots and 9 shots against Ireland and England and lost by 6 shots also to Wales.

The Ladies of the Alex Marshall Arena progressed in the Scottish Cup last weekend with a 6-2 win over Abbeyview at Bainfield. The game went to the wire and in the end an excellent ditched jack from Lauren Baillie-Whyte on end 19 to make a four with the shot against and then backed up by scoring at the last two ends seen the ladies through. Lauren and her rink won 18-17, while Yvonne Veitch’s rink won 24-13 and Janet Fairnie just lost out 16-18. The ladies are back in action this Saturday when they travel to West Lothian to play Tweedbank and the same team has been selected to try and progress to the quarter finals: M Kivlin, K Hoggan, D Hoggan & Y Veitch (Skip) M Penman, B Riva, M Thomson & J Fairnie M Murray, G Mackintosh, E Logan & L Baillie-Whyte

The club enters the fray in the Headwell Team Championship this weekend for which the following team has been selected to face Abbeyview at 2pm: Gents: A Cormack, G Pryde, D McGlynn & C Brock (Skip)
Ladies: M Kivlin, K Hoggan, D Hoggan & Y Veitch Mixed: M Hamilton, L Harris, K Cunningham and S Thomson Seniors: L Middler, A Burt, D Berwick and T Young

The Garden County youths progressed to the semi-finals of the Top Ten last Sunday with an emphatic clean sweep win against Ardrossan. Aaron Betts lead the way in the singles with a 21-8 win over the talented Jack Porteous. In the pairs Melissa Penman and Lewis Betts also had a comfortable win by 16-6, while the triple of Callum Henderson, Cameron Pryde and Danny Stevenson finished their game strongly to win 13-5. Finally the four of Luke Cowan, Lennon Rafferty, Beth Riva and Kieran Dodds finished off an impressive display by the youths with a comprehensive 13-4 victory.

On Sunday afternoon the youth pairs and triples qualifiers for the SYIBA finals were played. Melissa Penman and Lewis Betts in the pairs and Kieran Dodds, Aaron Betts and Danny Stevenson in the triples both successfully negotiated games against Midlothian and Bainfield respectively to qualify for the finals at Ardrossan.

This weekend sees the Scotland Under 18 trial being held when Danny Stevenson and Lewis Betts will be looking to retain their place in the team while Aaron Betts, Melissa Penman and Keiran Dodds will be looking to win their first caps at the under 18 level.

Last Sunday an East Lothian senior team travelled to Tweedbank to compete in their last game in the Central District Top Six where they secured a 3-3 draw to progress to the semi-finals to be held in Perth on the 17th March. While on Wednesday 20th the Jock Brodie Seniors Challenge Trophy sponsored by N T Craig, Tommy Young and Colin Glen was due to return to the Alex Marshall Arena with the Garden County Seniors playing Teviotdale and Bainfield playing Abbeyview.   The East Lothian team selected to play is: A Stewart, G Gray, I James & T Rattray (Skip) K Glen, J McLeod, G Arnot & B J Smith K Boyd, B Brunton, W Franklin & A McKenna

Gifford Bowling & Sports Club members should take note that their AGM takes place this Sunday 24th February at 2pm.