The various District finals took place in East Lothian over the past week and the Garden County now knows its various representatives flying the flag at Ayr Northfield in late July.
The ladies finals were played last Tuesday and Sunday at Port Seton. On Tuesday the Pairs and triples finals were played and in the Pairs final Tranent sisters Kim and Dee Hoggan won 18-10 over Eleanor Bannerman and Jane Blair to book their trip to Ayr whilst in the Triples the EL Co-op trio of Arlene Berwick, Yvonne Veitch and Megan Grantham also defeated Haddington in the shape of Karen Dick, Frances Brock and Sue Glen by 19-9. The ladies finals were completed on Sunday when EL Co-op’s former Scottish Junior Champion Megan Kivlin doubled up with victories in the Singles and Junior singles with wins over Louise Morgan (C&PS) 21-10 and Beth Riva (Gifford) 21-5. In the rink final Aberlady’s Kate Cowan, Moira Buchanan, Amanda Robertson and Melissa Penman came from 11-15 down with four ends to play to win 18-15 over Hazel Fender, Iona Leith, Jennifer Newlands and Dawn Murdoch from East Linton. In the Seniors events Yvonne Veitch won 21-15 over Mags Thomson of Castlepark in the singles whilst in the Fours Moira Buchanan, Maureen Thomson, Audrey Podlinski and Aileen Dyer also of Aberlady defeated Margaret Edmond, Pearl Greenwood, Doreen Donaldson and Betty Arnot of Prestongrange 13-10.
The SYIBA play-offs were also played at Port Seton on Saturday. After a long day of competitive bowling played on a round robin basis the following players booked their place at Ayr on Sunday 28th July. In the singles Logan Kennedy from the host club remained undefeated throughout his six games to claim the qualifying berth. The EL Co-op pair of Beth Riva and Kieran Dodds recorded four shot wins in both of their games to qualify whilst in the triples it was Castlepark in the shape of Dylan Veitch, Robbie Shields and Arran Porteous who progressed with the superior shots difference having won five of their six games.
At the time of writing Megan Grantham, Dee Hoggan and Lauren Baillie-Whyte were in the Channel Islands as part of the Scottish Ladies team taking part in the Home Internationals. Dee and Lauren were in the same rink with Dee leading and Lauren skipping with Laura Cox at second and Stacey McDougall from Dalkeith at third while Megan was playing second to Claire Johnstone. The Scots opened up with a resounding 47 shot win over Jersey in which Dee & Lauren’s rink won 30-17 and Megan’s 21-16, they then faced Ireland and produced an even better effort to win by 56 with Dee and Lauren involved in the top scoring rink as they won 41-11 while Megan’s rink lost out 19-25. Unfortunately Megan was rested for the Monday afternoon game against Ireland which was very tight and went down to the last bowl of the game with Scotland edging a one shot win. Lauren’s rink suffered a three shot loss in that game. This set up the title decider with England on Tuesday morning and Megan was brought back into the team in Margaret Letham’s rink. The game was closely fought in the early stages with the lead swapping hands, however, in the last third of the game it was the English ladies who proved the stronger and pulled away to win the game by twenty one shots . Dee and Lauren’s rink were defeated by five shots while Megan’s rink was defeated by seven shots.
The East Lothian gents travelled to Stenhousemuir to face second placed Stirling last Saturday and again kept their Andrew Hamilton Trophy hopes alive following a 120-112 victory with the returning Alister Kennedy the hero as he led his rink to a 30-11 win. Craig Valentine skipped his rink to a 19-16 victory while the rinks of both John McCrorie and Steven Morgan finished their games peels. Malcolm Higgenbotham lost out 13-19 whilst Colin Glen was defeated 15-23 by a rink including his brother Steven. As the section stands West Lothian have qualified while Edinburgh & Leith and East Lothian both have eight points although Edinburgh have a forty seven shot better shots difference than East Lothian meaning the Garden County must either win big this weekend or rely on West Fife defeating Edinburgh & Leith at Dalgety Bay.. The following line-up has been selected to face bottom of the table Fife at Haddington: S Anderson, C McLeod, G Dodds & A Kennedy (Skip) S Johnston Jnr, G Inglis, C Glen & B Young S Thomson, D Riva, J Mower & A Marshall MBE A Martin, S Johnston, C Valentine & B Mellors M Osborne, A Burt, G White & J McCrorie C Johnston, G Baillie, W Dunleavey & S Morgan.
EL Co-op stretched their lead at the top of East Coast Carpets League Division One last Friday when they won the local derby in Tranent 8-0. Haddington are their closest pursuers although they lost some ground when they were held to a 4-4 draw away to Dunbar. Port Seton tucked themselves in behind Haddington in third place following a good 6-2 win away to Prestongrange. Elphinstone also had a great result with an 8-0 win at home to Winton to move above Prestongrange into fourth place. Meanwhile in the battle of the second and third bottom teams East Linton defeated Castlepark to move away from the relegation zone. As the second half of the season commences the top two clash as EL Co-op entertain Haddington in a massive game which could go a long way to deciding the title. Port Seton will be looking to capitalise on the team who drops points from that fixture as they travel to Dunbar while Prestongrange travel to Winton. Elphinstone host Castlepark and East Linton welcome Tranent. Meanwhile the new League Cup is due to start this Monday while the first round proper of the Jubilee Cup for the Top Ten commenced on 19th June with the second round on 6th August.
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