EAST LOTHIAN BOWLING REPORT

East Lothian’s under twenty fives were crowned Calder Cup champions last Sunday at Sighthill. The tournament was in a Top Nine format and started off at a round robin group stage. The Garden County Juniors opened up with an assured 5-2 win over Dunbartonshire before soundly defeating Ayrshire and West Lothian 7-0 to top their section. They then faced Renfrewshire in the semi-final in what turned out to be a tight affair. The triple of Danny Stevenson, Reece Cochrane and Dean Riva secured a six shot win to get the team over the line, following a peel for the four of Kieran Dodds, Chris Brock, Calum Darling and Joe Mower and a narrow one shot loss for the pair of Kieran Simants and Declan French. Onto the final where Dumfriesshire provided the opposition. The triple could not repeat their semi-final performance and succumbed by five shots to their opponents, however, the fours improved from their peel in the semi to win their final game by three shots. This set the scene for the pair of Keiran and Declan who had more than made up for their semi-final loss in the early stages of the game and found themselves 9-5 up. However, on the next end Declan found himself facing four shots against which would swing the game back in favour of Dumfries. Declan elected to hit and an excellent strike burnt the end allowing them to start over and they secured the title from there going on to win their game 12-5. A jubilant team manager Stuart Thomson praised the players on a great team performance throughout the day.

The County finals took place at a sun drenched Elphinstone last Saturday and spectators were treated to a feast of top notch bowling. In the morning the youngsters and seniors of East Lothian took centre stage. The Youth and Junior Singles finals proved to be a family affair as there was success for the Riva family from Gifford as Dean scooped the Junior title following a 21-7 win over Calvert Allison from East Linton whilst his sister Beth claimed the Youth prize with an enthralling 21-20 win over Kieran Dodds from EL Co-op. The Youth Fours went the way of EL Co-op as Daryl Grieve, Cameron Pryde, Calum Henderson and Lennon Rafferty defeated the Ormiston rink of Rory Glen, Kane Walker, Abi McNeill and Lucy Walker 16-2. The Senior Fours provided a thrilling climax as the home four of Ian Thomson, Kenny Glen, Billy Higgins and Robert Strang from Elphinstone looked to have the title in the bag as they entered the last end six shots up, however, there was to be a final twist as their opponents Bob Cowan, Edgar Beevers, Phil Lucas and Tom Docherty from Stenton surrounded the jack to claim a title winning seven and cause heartache for the host club. In the afternoon the four gents’ finals took to the green. The singles was the centre piece and it did not fail to deliver with Dougie Berwick of EL Co-op bursting into an early 14-5 lead after ten ends, however, his opponent Malcolm Higgenbotham of Haddington then found his true form and began to pepper the jack, going on an unbelievable run of sixteen shots over the next nine ends to claim the singles title. The pairs final was another in which the lead changed hands late on with the Ormiston pairing of Dan Rowley and George Inglis bouncing back from 6-10 down with five to play against Haddington’s Calum Darling and Billy Mellors to score 2, 4, (1), 1 and 1 and claim the trophy 14-11. In the triples last year’s champions of Winton were back for more in the shape of Craig McCall, Derek Allen and Chris Johnstone and duly retained the title following a 15-8 victory over the Macmerry triple of Brian Maynard, John Carpenter Jnr and Angus Blair. The final title of the day went to the home club as Peter Fallen, Mark Riding, Stephen Cochrane and Colin Glen overpowered their opponents of Michael Faulds, Logan Robertson, Jim Murray and Peter Duncan from Dunbar 25-8 to spark the celebrations.

Singles – Malcolm Higgenbotham (Haddington)
Youth Singles – Beth Riva and County Junior Singles – Dean Riva (Both Gifford)
Pairs – Dan Rowley and George Inglis (Ormiston)
Triples – Craig McCall, Chris Johnston and Derek Allen (Pencaitland & Winton)
Fours – Mark Riding, Colin Glen, Stephen Cochrane & Peter Fallen (Elphinstone)
Senior Fours – Bob Cowan, Edgar Beevers, Phil Lucas and Tom Docherty (Stenton)
Youth Fours – Callum Henderson, Lennon Rafferty, Daryl Grieve and Cameron Pryde (EL Co-op)

The Champion of Champions gets underway on Monday culminating in the semi-finals and final being played at Haddington next Saturday and the final few championships have been decided with Joe Mower a 21-15 winner over Billy Mellors at Haddington, Sam Newlands defeated Alec Renton 21-6 at Athelstaneford whilst Craig McLeod defeated Graeme Easton 21-7 at Winton. The Courier Cup will also be staged at Haddington next Saturday with the four league winners of Cockenzie & Port Seton, Ormiston, Tranent A and newly crowned Division Four champions Stenton doing battle for the last silverware of the season.

County Young Gun Kieran Dodds was representing Scotland in the Under 18s Tri-Nations event taking place in Belfast last week and was in great form to help the Scots win the Series overall by four points. Kieran won all three of his pairs games, peeled his triples game and just lost out in both of his rink games.

The Garden County Youths are in action this Sunday in the national finals of the Andy Houston trophy at Blacklands, Kilwinning where they will face West Lothian, Fife and Ayrshire North for the title. The following team has been selected:

Ethan Gillies, Dylan Veitch, Ben Gearty & Kieran Dodds

Daryl Grieve, Abi McNeill, Callum Henderson & Lennon Rafferty

Lee Jamieson, Liam Till, Beth Riva & John Clark

Luke Cowan, Cameron Pryde, Lucy Walker & Logan Kennedy

Reserve – Daniel Kivlin

The indoor season is just around the corner with the Alex Marshall Arena, home of East Lothian Indoor Bowls, opening from 6-8pm on Monday 9^th September and 12-2pm and 6-8pm each weekday the remainder of the week for bounce games and paying of membership fees prior to opening fully on Monday 16^th when all leagues will commence.