There were silver medals at the Atlantic Rims Championships for both the pair of Paul Foster and Alex Marshall MBE and the triple of Ronnie Duncan, Derek Oliver and Darren Burnett last week as they both lost out narrowly in their respective finals.
Read MoreThere was more disappointment in the Andrew Hamilton Trophy at the weekend when East Lothian suffered a 13 shot defeat to the defending AHT Champions West Lothian at Port Seton. West Lothian made a fast start and powered into a twenty shot lead in the early stages of the game thanks mainly to the rinks of Neil Speirs and Raymond Logan opening up double figure leads over Colin Glen and John McCrorie respectively. Colin and John’s rinks were never able to get back into their games and the closest the Garden County gents got to their opponents was nine shots with one end to play in a game which finished 110-123 to the visitors. The team fought hard but never really looked like winning and now nothing other than five consecutive wins are required to have any chance of progressing. Rink scores were as follows: C Glen 12 N Speirs 26; S Morgan 23 T Mann 17; S Kennedy 19 S Fleming 21; B Young 23 A Dunnett 12; C Valentine 17 G Logan 21 and J McCrorie 16 R Logan 26.
On Saturday the gents travel to Abbotsford to face the Borders with a team that reads as follows: D Young, K Dodds, D Riva & B Young (Skip) C Johnston, S Anderson, S Johnston & C Valentine
R Shields, G Inglis, G Dodds & C Glen A Burt, G Baillie, W Dunleavey & S Morgan K Cunningham, M Osborne, G White & J McCrorie A Martin, T Young, S Thomson & M Higgenbotham
Reserves: C McLeod, S Greenan, M McCormack, D Stevenson & B Galloway
In a devastating result the under 25 team travelled to Queensberry last week to face arch rivals Edinburgh and Leith and were put to the sword by a crushing 91-131 scoreline. The rinks of Declan French and Dean Riva were the only positives for the young guns as they recorded seven and two shot wins respectively. However, the defeats suffered by the other skips Joe Mower (-8), Reece Cochrane (-11), Calum Darling (-14) and James Burnett (-16) means the townies take a huge shots advantage moving forward in the section. The under 25s have no game this Sunday with their next fixture in the Scottish Cup on the 2nd June v Glasgow at Bellahouston before returning to league action on the 9th June away to Fife at Auchtermuchty.
In a poor weekend for East Lothian on the national competition front Tranent made a first round exit in the National Top Ten at home to Buccleugh from Midlothian. In the singles Kevin Cunningham lost out narrowly 17-21 while the pair of Matt Osbourne & John McCrorie edged the home team in front with a 26-19 win. However, the triple of Matthew Martin, Dean Higgins & Alan Young were also involved in a close game which went the way of the opposition 13-15 and the four of Kenny McCrorie, David Whitson, Adam Martin & Kevin Jones could not emulate their form of the previous week as they lost out 9-18.
Last Friday night top of the league Haddington strengthened their position with an 8-0 win at home to Tranent while Cockenzie and Port Seton remained within touching distance after also posting an impressive 8-0 home win over Castlepark. East Linton maintained their impressive start to the season with a 6-2 away win against a struggling Dunbar side, Prestongrange also continued their consistent start to the season with a 6-2 win over Elphinstone while EL Co-op moved into the top half of the league following a 6-2 home win over Winton. This Friday Haddington will try to maintain their gap of the top of the league when they travel to Winton while Port Seton and East Linton will aim to maintain their challenge as they face tough games against Tranent and EL Co-op respectively. Castlepark and Prestongrange meet for bragging rights in Prestonpans in the game of the night while Dunbar will be aiming to avoid yet another 2-6 defeat as they travel to Elphinstone. After five games Haddington have stretched their lead to six points at the top of the league in a league which reads: Haddington 31pts
Cockenzie & Port Seton 25 East Linton 24 Prestongrange 22 EL Co-op 22 Winton 18 Elphinstone 17
Tranent 16 Castlepark 15 Dunbar 10. A full update of all leagues will appear next week.
The semi-finals of the ELBA trophy are scheduled to take place this Sunday. Ormiston and EL Co-op meet at Haddington whilst Winton and Dunbar clash at East Linton. Both semis are scheduled for Noon with the final taking place at Haddington at 3pm.
The first route to the National Finals at Ayr was down to the semi-final stage at the time of writing with the following semi-finals due to take place on Wednesday night and the winners meeting in the final on Monday night and all games due take place at Aberlady. Hazel Fender and Grant Thomson (East Linton) v Lucy Walker and Stuart Johnston (Ormiston) ; Janet Fairnie and Raymond Frame (Castlepark) v Pauline Greenan and Ross Marwick (Prestongrange).