Nine times club champion Malcolm Weir has delivered Whitehouse and Grange its first Edinburgh Bowling League Knockout Title with the 51-year old skipping Fraser Milligan and Calum Weir (son) to victory in the Triples discipline of the Buyrite Bathrooms sponsored Championship Finals played at Summerside.
The W&G trio were made to fight every inch of the way in a high octane confrontation that that saw them explode from 16-10 down to snatch a dramatic 17-16 win over Peter Stitt, Alan Tough, and Colin Bell of Hillside. The climax produced a moment of pure theatre with the score deadlocked at 16-16 entering the last where Tough tipped the scales in favour of Hillside with an excellent draw close to the jack that nullified good build up play from the W&G front-two. Weir (Malcolm) failed to beat the shot with a his first bowl draw attempt but a change of tact saw him elect to target the opposition bowl with extra pace and with perfect precision edged it out for what became the title winning single. “This was a game played out on the knife-edge of dramatic swings in the score but we were always comfortable with our skills and competitive focus and it is a great thrill to chalk up a first EBL knockout title for Whitehouse and Grange”, said Weir Senior later. The early exchanges saw W&G get off the mark with a mighty count of five on the third end then add a three to lead 8-3; but an exchange of doubles to 10-5 as followed by a Hillside charge of 1, 3, 5, 1, 1 to cross 16-10. W&G closed to 15 with a, 2, 3 response then raised the match temperature sky high on the penultimate end with Weir ditching the jack for a spectacular single to 16-16.
Meanwhile the final of The Fours brought more nerve wracking drama to the well supported occasion with past Tait Trophy champion David Scott skipping his Northern rink of Gordon Wilson Snr, Grant Young, and Lorry Sorrell to a 13-12 victory. Scott looked to have tamed the Corstorphine opposition of Andy Lees, Alan Mather Jnr, Brian Sharp, and Bob Page when helped by several brilliant conversions he built up an 11-2 lead after eight ends. Corstorphine did get some due rewards with a fight back of 1, 2, 1, (1), 1, 1, 2 to 12-10 but Northern arrested their slide with a single to 13 then just managed their last end loss to a double. “I faced three against on the penultimate end but attacked the head and sprung the jack for a single that proably was the final game-changer for us”, said Scott later then added “My front-two came onto a good game after an unsettled start”.
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