The Under 25 brigade of East Lothian hopes of landing a third Scottish Under 25 League Cup title were ended last Sunday when they made a disappointing semi-final exit to South section winners Ayrshire at Sighthill BC in Edinburgh.
In the end it was only a frustrating 5 shot defeat but in truth the garden county ‘young yins’ had always been in the slipstream of their rivals from the opening ends. The combined defeat of the rinks skipped by Ross Irvine (-14), Steven White (-6) Gordon White (-6) and Kieran Frame (-3) proved too much to be covered by the wins delivered by team captain Glenn Blair (+15) and James Burnett (+9). “Although very disappointed the players tried very hard and in the end just failed. It was a great experience for a lot of the lads and we will concentrate on developing this squad for next season but first we have a Scottish Cup to try and win so I’m hoping the players selected will lift themselves for this”, reflected team co-manager Stevie Greenan.
East Lothian’s venture in the inaugural Scottish Cup for Under 25s begins on Sunday when they tackle Renfrewshire in the second round action which is being staged at the neutral venue of Roslin Bowling Club. The set-up for the new national tournament sees team’s field just four rinks instead of the usual six rinks so this has meant team co-managers Stevie and Michael Greenan have had to sacrifice the services of a numbers of the players who performed so well in the League Cup campaign. Many hours of deliberation and hard decision making went into selecting their final line-up and they have settled on the following side:- S.Gray (C/P), L.Newlands (Ath), G.White (Aber), J.Burnett (C/P) skip F.Pringle (C/P), Dec French (Elph), R.Cochrane (P/G), G.Blair (Hadd) skip/capt C.Allison (E/L), J.Robertson (Tra), S.White (ELCO), K.Frame (C/P) skip R.Thomson (ELCO), C.Bell (Hadd), R.Irvine (P/G), E.Fallen (ELCO) skip Reserves: C.Brock (Hadd) & B.Inglis (Aber)
Players are requested to report at Roslin BC by no later than 1pm and any player selected who is unable to play is requested to contact Stevie Greenan immediately on 07712 277681.
East Lothian senior side get their Inter-County Senior League Cup campaign for the Matt Purdie Trophy underway on Monday when they tackle Edinburgh & Leith in their opener at Haddington BC (11am). The prestigious over 60’s tournament sees the garden county ‘auld yins’ line up against Edinburgh & Leith, West Fife and West Lothian in their qualifying section and they face both home and away fixtures against all the sides. After two trial matches team manager Andy Burt has selected the following line-up:- K.Morgan (C&PS), W.Fotheringham (Long), R.Strang (Elph), T.Young (Dun) skip K.Boyd (ELCO), A.Delaney (Hadd), D.Kennedy (W/B), G.Cowan (E/L) skip D.Hogg (ELCO), J.P.Hamilton (W/B), G.Blyth (ELLC), A.Morgan (C&PS) skip B.Brunton (Dun), J.Smith (ELLC), A.Jamieson (C&PS), G.Smith (ELCO) skip Reserve Pool: – P. Fallen (Elph), T.Morrison (Dun), R.Scott (Mac), J.M.Hogg (Mac), J.Holmes (ELLC), G.Gray (ELLC)
Players should report at Haddington by 10.30am. Any player selected who is unable to play should contact Andy Burt immediately on 07783 323079.
Meanwhile team manager Andy Burt would like to pass on his sincere thanks to the ladies of Haddington BC for their efforts during the recent two trial matches making sure the seniors were supplied with filled rolls and beverages.
The East Lothian trio of Derek Oliver (Cockenzie & Port Seton), Scott Kennedy and Billy Mellors (both West Barns) were last weekend part of a Scotland side that lost their grip on the British Home International Series at Eddlewood BC in Hamilton and had to settle for second best behind ‘auld enemy’ England.
The defending champions got off to the worst possible start when they lost their opening match against England by a scoreline of 113-107. After the defeat the Scottish selectors announced several positional changes to their line-up for the second match against Wales and it certainly paid off with the Scots posting a 125-113 win to keep them in the title hunt. In the Sunday morning play the Scots needed a strong performance against Ireland in their final match but at the same time were reliant on Wales beating England. Scotland did sign off with a consolation 116-103 win over Ireland but England reclaimed back the title with a 100% record after powering to a 133-99 triumph over Wales. Oliver skipped his rink to two excellent wins over Wales and Ireland respectively but suffered a damaging heavy defeat against England while Kennedy and Mellors played second and third in the rink skipped by Colin Walker and they recorded a convincing win against Wales but suffered defeats against England and Ireland.
Last Friday night saw the East Coast Carpets sponsored East Lothian Leagues enter the second half of its 18 match programme and the action in Division 1 saw Tranent go six points clear after a stunning 8-0 home win over arch rivals EL-Coop. Haddington remain on the heels of the league leaders although they lost ground despite the defending champions celebrating a good 6-2 away win at basement struggler’s Dunbar. Cockenzie & Port Seton hoisted themselves up to third place, but still a whopping 18 points off the pace, with an excellent 8-0 home win over West Barns while the result was rivalled by East Linton’s 8-0 home crushing of Gifford. In the all Castlepark battle in Prestonpans it was first team side that showed their supremacy and inflicted 8-0 misery on their second string side (Castlepark A).
In tonight’s (Friday) Division 1 action leaders Tranent welcome back Brian ‘Sconie’ Young for first team duty when play host to East Linton at Polson Park. Haddington entertain Gifford and the visitor’s spirits will be lifted as icon figure Alex ‘Tattie’ Marshall is set to make his seasonal debut after a lengthy stint in Australia. Elsewhere, Cockenzie & Port Seton make the short trip to tackle relegation zoned Castlepark A; West Barns visit EL-Coop while foot of the table Dunbar are at home to Castlepark.
Just a reminder that all club secretaries are requested to ensure that all league and cup results, including shots aggregate score, are phoned into ELBA Match Secretary Keith Fender on 01620 860217 or via text message 07786 110416 immediately after each match.
Aberlady Bowling Club are staging an Open Mixed Triples tournament on Saturday July 11th and entries are now being accepted by contacting Gus Scott on 01875 870862. Meanwhile on the same day West Barns Bowling Club will hold an Open Fours tournament and entries for this should be made to Douglas Kennedy on 01368 862081 by tomorrow (Saturday).