Mark Johnston travelled to Hayling Island last weekend as part of the Scottish team in the British Isles Senior (Over 50) Double Rink Series. Mark was leading in a rink which consisted of Stuart Pagan, Colin Smith and Robert Grant (skip).
Read MoreAlex Marshall MBE’s World Singles campaign suffered a second round exit last week as Alex lost out 2-0 to England’s Les Gillett who was in impressive form throughout the game and had answers for everything Alex threw at him.
East Lothian Gents ended their league campaign with an impressive 89-62 away victory over Lanarkshire which ended up relegating the home side to the First Division next season. While the gents’ team could not catch Blantyre due to their shots difference they now go into the Scottish Cup campaign on the back of three impressive wins. Scott Kennedy’s rink were top scorers with a thirteen shot win over the rink of George Prosser and were closely followed by the rink of Billy Mellors who were twelve up against John Simpson. Derek Oliver recorded a three shot win whilst the rink of Stuart Thomson were just edged out by one shot. The gents finish the campaign two points behind Blantyre who now face Midlothian in the final. The gents now begin their Scottish Cup campaign with a visit to Bainfield to face league rivals Abbeyview and the following team has been selected: M Yuill, D Stevenson, M Johnston & D Oliver (Skip), L Middler, C Brock, C Glen & S Thomson,
J Higgins, K Dodds, S Morgan & J Mower
A Betts, J Gordon, A Jeffrey & L Betts
The East Lothian Under 35 team started their campaign with an impressive 8-2 victory over a joint Abbeyview and East Fife team last Sunday. There were rink wins for Ewan Fallen (+8), Dean Riva (+6) and Stuart Thomson (+3) with only Chris Fallen’s rink losing out 10-25 to Alistair Nimmo. The Under 35s are back in action this Sunday when they travel to Headwell to face local rivals Midlothian at 2pm. Team manager Derek Oliver has named the following team:
C Darling, B Riva, L Betts & S Thomson (Skip)
A Martin, G Blair, D Stevenson & E Fallen
C Brock, K Dodds, A Betts & J Mower
M Yuill, K Cunningham, J Robertson & C Fallen
Res: C Henderson
The Garden County Senior team were in semi-final action in the Scottish Seniors League knockout stages last Wednesday when they travelled to Headwell to face Aberdeen. The players went in expectant mood following their win against Alloa the previous week. The game was to prove a tight affair with Aberdeen always holding a slight advantage as evidenced by their two shot lead after five and ten ends and their extension of this to six shots after fifteen ends. The Garden County Auld Yins kept fighting and late counts of six and three for Andy Burt and Graham Robertson’s rinks respectively seen them close the gap and on the last end counts of three for Tommy Young, two for Andy and a loss of a one for Graham seen Willie Wood now protecting a one shot lead playing his last end. After the front ends had played Aberdeen lay the two shots required and despite valiant efforts by the back end of Alistair Russell and Willie they could not disturb the head and Aberdeen progressed to the final by an agonising one shot margin, 60-59. The final rink scores seen Andy Burt win 22-11, Willie Wood MBE peeled 15-15 while Graham Robertson lost out 11-14 and Tommy Young by 11-20.
The team had to bounce back from this hard defeat quickly as they travelled to West Lothian on Wednesday to play Stirling in the Scottish Seniors Cup preliminary round for which the following team was selected:
L Middler, G Cowan, D Berwick & G Robertson (Skip)
R Douglas, J Henderson, A Russell & W W Wood MBE
B J Smith, D Pryde, A McKenna & A Burt
P Fallen, K Fender, G Gray & T Young
This Sunday sees the next stage of the Senior Scottish Knockout play-offs at West Lothian where East Lothian are represented by Janet Fairnie as she defends her Singles title and the Gents Senior Four of Lessel Middler, Andy Burt, Dougie Berwick and Tommy Young. Janet faces Shona Johnstone from Midlothian in her first game at 10am while the Fours play Abbeyview, also at 10am. The quarter finals then take place at 2pm on Sunday with all the winners going forward to the Senior National Finals at Abbeyview on the 29th February and 1st March.
East Lothian Youths continued their defence of the league last Saturday when they travelled to Dunfermline to face Abbeyview in a game that was always going to be crucial. The rink of
Ethan Gillies, Rory Glen, Callum Henderson and Aaron Betts were three down playing the last end, however Aaron turned a bowl to lie three for the peel only for Kara to rescue the third shot with her final delivery to win 11-10. Daryl Grieve, Abi McNeill, Lennon Rafferty and Beth Riva were also three down playing the last end and Beth just missed the jack to make a four with her last bowl and lost out 9-16. Luke Cowan, Daniel Kivlin, Logan Kennedy and Kieran Dodds were also three down playing the last end, however, a superb last end seen them card a four and snatch two points which could turn out to be massive as East Lothian and Abbeyview are now tied on 22 points with one game left to play. East Lothian have the superior shots difference by fifty one shots so the holders have a slight edge going into the final round of fixtures on the 15th February when East Lothian entertain Midlothian and Abbeyview travel to Bainfield.