East Lothian 21/2

The Scots faced the Auld Enemy first in which was a high class encounter. The Scots led for more than half of the game, however, the English were not done and came back strong in the latter stages to take the lead. The Scots fought back though and found themselves five down with three ends to play on Jason Bank’s rink. That rink managed to score a 3, 1, 1 finish to level the game and keep the Scots in the hunt for the title. Next up for the Scottish team were Wales on Saturday afternoon. The Scots played well throughout this game and managed to dominate the early stages of the game and by end sixteen found themselves twenty shots up. At this stage the Welsh put in their strongest phase of the game to reduce their deficit to four. The Scottish team were up to the task however and seen out the game to eventually win by twenty nine shots. This win coupled up with Ireland defeating England set up a winner takes all clash with the Irish on Sunday morning. The young Scots were in a determined mood from the off in this game and continued how they’d finished off against Wales to produce a truly stunning opening three ends of play across the carpet and on every rink to outscore their opponents 8-1, 9-1 and 12-0 and lead 29-2 to put the series firmly in their grasps after only just over half an hour of play. Despite minor comebacks from the Irish the Scots hit the afterburners again in the second half of the game and went first 40 up, then 50 and then 60 before eventually running out 122-53 winners and claiming the series. Dean Riva was playing third to John Fleming in the series and put in an excellent display in a rink which won all three of their games by a combined thirty shots. Joe Mower’s rink were defeated in their opening two games, however, they comfortably won their last game by eleven shots to finish on a positive note while Lewis done himself every chance moving forward with his support of the team in his role as reserve.

It was a great week all round for the Garden County as, as well as our under 25s being part of the winning Scotland team, there was League and East of Scotland success for our youths and our teams were successful in their Gents, Seniors and Ladies Scottish Cup and Central Top Six ties and in the Headwell Team Championship.

East Lothian Gents continued their Scottish Cup run last Saturday when they defeated Berwickshire 6-4 at Tweedbank to progress to the quarter finals of the competition. Heroes of the day were the rinks of the Jamie Higgins and Steven Morgan who bossed their games from the opening ends to make it a comfortable day as they recorded twenty five and sixteen shot wins respectively which more than compensated the narrow defeats of Derek Oliver and Billy Mellors by four and six shots respectively. East Lothian’s opponents in the quarter final are Coatbridge who they will face on Saturday 7th March with a venue to be confirmed.

The ladies were in Scottish Cup action against East Fife at Headwell and they recorded an 8-2 victory with wins for the rinks of Janet Fairnie (+17), Megan Kivlin (+10) and Dee Hoggan (+2) while Lauren Baillie-Whyte and her rink lost out by four shots. The ladies now face Balbardie at Bainfield this Saturday and the following team has been named: Arlene Berwick, Margaret Murray & Megan Kivlin (Skip) Jackie McFarlane, Pat Turner & Lauren Baillie-Whyte, Melissa Penman, Beth Riva & Mags Thomson, Chandrika Monro, Kim Hoggan & Dee Hoggan, Reserve: Abi McNeill

Last Sunday East Lothian were in action in the Headwell Team Championship where they faced Perth in the first round and ran out winners on shots. The senior rink skipped by Willie Wood MBE lost out 19 – 21 to D Lambert, while the gents rink skipped by Colin Glen also lost out narrowly 16-20 to R Dennis. The ladies and mixed rinks made up for these small deficits as Megan Kivlin skipped the ladies rink to a 20-11 victory over S Myles, while John McCrorie was a 24-17 winner over G Lennon. The team now face the winners of the Abbeyview v West Lothian game with a date to be confirmed later in March.

The Seniors won their first round of the Seniors Scottish Cup by an 8-2 scoreline over West Lothian at Alloa last Wednesday. As in the ladies and gents disciplines the game is based on two points per rink and two points for overall shots. This meant that, despite East Lothian leading by twenty two shots after fifteen ends, three rinks were tight which meant the game wasn’t done. However, the Garden County seniors proved the strongest over the closing ends and three of the four rinks won with Graham Robertson recording a twelve shot victory and being ably supported by the rinks of Andy Burt (+3) and Tommy Young (+1) while Wille Wood was defeated by only three shots. The seniors were due to play local rivals Midlothian in the last sixteen at East Fife on Wednesday.

The Central District Top Six seen our players travelling to Falkirk to play Lanarkshire on Monday and this was to prove another success for the seniors with the pair of Peter Fallen and Tom Young and the triple of John Hamilton, Ali McKenna and Andy Burt winning to compensate the defeat of Lessel Middler in the singles. The team now face West Lothian or Tweedbank in the semi-final on the 14th March.

East Lothian Youths retained the East of Scotland League last Saturday by the narrowest of margins. Rivals East Lothian and Abbeyview were tied on 22 points going into the final fixtures, however East Lothian were fifty one shots better off than Abbeyview. The rink of Aaron Betts opened up with a 1,7,4 burst to lead 12-0 against Emma Docherty and his rink continued well to count on eight of the remaining ten ends to record a fine 23-3 win to put the Garden County youths in a strong position. However, the other two rinks were involved in tough battles. Kieran Dodds was nip and tuck against Arron McGlynn and led 9-6 after ten ends, however, the last bowl of the next end was to be crucial as Arron made a four with seven against to go in front and went on to win 16-9. Beth Riva was against Liam Grantham on rink four and trailed 6-0 after four ends and 11-2 after eleven, however, Beth’s rink almost got the deficit back over the final two ends scoring a five and a three on to just lose out 10-11. These results see Midlothian win the clash 4-3 which seemed to have finished the East Lothian hopes of four in a row but news filtered through from Hutchison Crossway that Bainfield had defeated Abbeyview 4-3 which meant the league title was retained on shots difference from the Dunfermline based side and once again the Garden County Youths were the champions. The winning East Lothian team last Saturday was as follows: Ethan Gillies, Rory Glen, Callum Henderson and Aaron Betts (Skip) ,
Daryl Grieve, Abi McNeill, Lennon Rafferty and Beth Riva, Luke Cowan, Daniel Kivlin, Logan Kennedy and Kieran Dodds.

The youths then moved onto the East of Scotland Pairs and Triples at Stirling on Sunday and there was success with both the Pairs and Triples returning to the Alex Marshall Arena to sit alongside the Fours title which was won in December. In the pairs Callum Henderson and Aaron Betts won all five section games which put them into the final against Midlothian’s Lucy Walker and Arron McGlynn. The East Lothian pair were too strong for their neighbours and ran out 12-2 winners. Logan Kennedy and Beth Riva also competed in the pairs and played well but unfortunately didn’t qualify from their section. In the triples Ethan Gillies, Lennon Rafferty and Kieran Dodds won their section with four wins from their five games and in the final they faced the Abbeyview triple of Bryony Miller, Ryan Hunter and Aaron Miller. They found themselves two down with two ends to go, however, a five moved East Lothian into a three shot lead playing the last. There was three against Kieran before he executed an excellent last bowl to make the shot and clinch the title with a 9-4 victory.

Outdoor bowling season is approaching and Gifford Bowling and Sports Club would like members to note that their AGM is on Sunday 1st March at 2pm.