There was Scottish qualification success for the club last weekend in the Junior and Senior events. In the national under 18 singles playoffs at Aberdeen Aaron Betts was successful in making it through to the semi-final stages.
Read MoreAlex Marshall MBE’s participation in the Scottish International Open was stopped by Paul Foster MBE in the second round at Perth last week. In a close first set it was Paul who scored on the last end to just edge it by one shot and he flew out the traps in the second set to move through to the quarter finals 7-8, 5-10 and eventually won the event. Alex is currently in Australia as part of the Brisbane Pirates team competing in the lucrative Premier League at Pine Rivers Bowling Club from the 12th to 15th November.
The gents had a bad day at the office as they returned to Premier League action last Saturday. The gents are the only team to have defeated Blantyre on their very tricky carpet in the last decade so entered the match with some hope and an early lead was to enhance their hopes. This lead was to prove a false dawn though as the home team turned on the style and used their home advantage to dominate the game and hand out a crushing 113-52 defeat to the Garden County men. Derek Oliver’s rink battled hard in their game against Brian Irvine but eventually fell to a 15-21 defeat. Joe Mowers rink led for the first half of their game, however, the rink of Jim Meikle were very strong over the second half of the game and produced a 29-17 win. Scott Kennedy and his rink were competing hard as well and were only a couple of shots down two thirds into the game, however, a final third collapse seen them suffer a 12-30 reverse to Iain McLean while the rink of Billy Mellors were under the cosh all day against World Champion Stewart Anderson and ended up on the wrong end of a 8-33 scoreline. The gents aim to bounce back to form when they face Lanarkshire at home this Saturday and the following team has been named: Mark Johnston, Dougie Berwick, Stuart Thomson and Joe Mower (Skip), Aaron Betts, Jamie Gordon, Dean Riva and Derek Oliver, Jamie Higgins, Danny Stevenson, Steven Morgan and Scott Kennedy,
Mark Yuill, Calum Darling, Lewis Betts and Billy Mellors.
The Ladies were in action last week and recorded a 68-47 victory at home to East Fife. Top scorers were Dee Hoggan’s rink who were on top form to hand out a resounding 30-9 defeat to Julie Sword and they were ably backed up by Janet Fairnie who defeated Celia Smith’s rink by a 23-13 scoreline. The rink of the returning Lauren Baillie-Whyte lost out 15-25 to Lynne Stein, however, the score was exaggerated with the loss of eight shots over the last two ends. The following team has been selected to face Bainfield away this Saturday as the ladies aim to win their last three games of the campaign to give themselves any chance of qualifying: B.Riva, C.Monro, K.Hoggan & D.Hoggan, M.Penman, P.Turner, M.Thomson & J.Fairnie, J.McFarlane, A.Berwick, M Kivlin & Y Veitch Reserve: M.Murray.
The Garden County Senior brigade travelled to Falkirk to play the last game in the first half of this year’s campaign. The game once again saw our seniors get off to their customary fast start and after the first five ends they held a fourteen shot lead, which they increased to sixteen at the ten end stage before powering away from their opponents over the remainder of the game to record an impressive 74-43 triumph. Top scorers were the rink of Tommy Young who won by twenty shots and were closely followed by Andy Burt’s rink who recorded a fifteen shot win. Willie Wood MBE and his rink were victors by three shots while Graham Robertson suffered his first loss of the season by seven shots. This keeps the Auld Yins chances very much alive as they face their chief rivals and league leaders Midlothian at Dalkeith next Wednesday in a must win game should they wish to proceed from the section. The team for this game was still to be selected at the time of writing.
A large crowd showed up to watch the East Lothian youths began their defence of the East of Scotland League last Saturday morning with a home fixture at the Alex Marshall Arena against Bainfield. The youths have lost four players this season due to age limit in the shape of Danny Stevenson, Lewis Betts, Melissa Penman and Cameron Pryde leading to debuts for Rory Glen and Sam Niven. The rink of Aaron Betts trailed 5-3 after four ends against Euan Gray, however, a run of 2,2,(2),1,3,2,2,4 seen them shoot into a 19-7 lead after 12 ends, while the loss of singles on the last two ends seen the game finish 19-9. Kieran Dodds and his rink scored on six of the first eight ends to lead 12-2, a lead which they preserved until the end of the game to record an 18-8 win. Beth Riva and her rink were up against Luke Corbett in a game which they led 9-5, however, Bainfield scored on the last five ends to win 13-9. This meant an opening 5-2 success for the East Lothian Young Yins at they bid for four titles in a row.
Finally Alex Marshall Sports are holding a sale at their warehouse at Mayfield Industrial Estate until the 20th December.