The Gent’s team got their Premier League campaign firmly back on track last Saturday when they produced an emphatic 29 shot home victory over Bainfield. The Meadowmill men showed their intent from the first few ends as they opened up a 10 shot lead after 5 ends and by halfway had increased this to 19.
Read MoreThe result was never in doubt from this point as the Garden County men dominated their townie opponents. The rink of Aaron Betts, Alex Cormack, Jamie Higgins and Scott Kennedy led the way with a 19 shot victory over former East Lothian man James Hogg. Billy Mellors bloomed as he led his rink of Mark Johnston, David Sked and Dean Riva to a 14 shot victory over Bainfield legend Rab Marshall. Derek Oliver scored a two at the last to record a one shot victory over Paul O’Donnell while Joe Mower lost 5 shots over the last two ends to lose out by those shots to John McDermott. The gents have no game next week before returning on the 24th with a huge game as they visit their neighbours Midlothian who lead the section.
The ladies also got their campaign back on track after a couple of setbacks and in some style with a huge 50 shot win away (83-33) to West Lothian. Melissa Penman, Jean Russell, Mags Thomson & Janet Fairnie led the way with an emphatic 36-12 win over J Sneddon including counts of 6 and 7 over the last six ends. They were closely followed by the rink of Jacky McFarlane, Arlene Berwick, Gillian Mackintosh & Lauren Baillie who won by 16 shots from C Clarkson. Finally the rink of Margaret Murray, Kim Hoggan, Megan Kivlin & Yvonne Veitch recorded a 10 shot win over L Barrett. The ladies next game is at home to Midlothian on the 24th.
It’s National Fours action this weekend and with the Alex Marshall Arena being a venue over the weekend our ladies and gents fours travel to Inverclyde. Current national champions Jamie Higgins, Scott Kennedy, Billy Mellors and Derek Oliver face Cowal in a prelim at 9.30am on Saturday while Dee Hoggan, Mags Thomson, Yvonne Veitch and Janet Fairnie are also in a 9.30am prelim against East Kilbride.
The seniors had no game last week and the second half of this year’s campaign seen them travel to Teviotdale on Wednesday. The only change to the team being Alan Valentine replacing Ronnie Douglas in Tommy Young’s rink.
Our Senior Four of Brian Smith, Davie Pryde, Alan Morgan and Peter Fallen were in Scottish action last Sunday at Bainfield. Unfortunately they were unable to emulate their national success of 2017 as they went out to Headwell 12-20 in the first round.
Our ladies were also in Scottish Senior action last Sunday at Midlothian. In the pairs Jean Russell and Morag Wood lost out in a close battle in their opening game, going down 11-14 to the host club. There was better news for our singles representative Janet Fairnie, however, as she won her two games and now progresses to the last sixteen at Bainfield when she will play Maureen Morrison from Perth in January. Janet disposed of Tweedbank 21-13 in her preliminary round before a close fought 21-18 win over Anne Bernard from Abbeyview.
Also in Scottish action last Sunday were our Under 18 and Under 21 singles representatives Kieran Dodds and Dean Riva. Unfortunately Kieran lost out narrowly in each of his three games at Arbroath and was unable to progress to the quarter finals.
Dean was in excellent form to win all four of his group games at Abbeyview to progress to a quarter final against fellow junior international trialist Liam Nicholson from Tweedbank. In a close game Dean unfortunately was edged out 13-10 by Liam.
The youths opened their league campaign with an excellent 7-0 home victory over Abbeyview last Saturday. Danny Stevenson led his rink to a nine shot win, while Lewis Betts’ rink ran out thirteen shot winners and Aaron Betts sealed full points with a two at the last to win by one shot. The youths are at the two rink Midlothian tournament this weekend and the following team has been selected: Callum Henderson, Lennon Rafferty, Beth Riva, Lewis Betts (Skip) Melissa Penman, Cameron Pryde, Kieran Dodds, Aaron Betts (Skip)