Slateford have a proud Top Ten history at local and national level so there is a sense of excitement in their camp that 2015 presents another opportunity to be crowned the Champions of Edinburgh for a record extending sixth time.
That opportunity comes against Colinton in the final on Saturday 22nd August having booked their place with an impressive 8-0 win over Bainfield in a hard fought semi final clash at Postal. Spearhead figure Robert Marshall delivered the goods in the Singles where a lengthy 27-end battle against former clubmate Craig Paterson saw the Slateford camp cheer a 21-18 victory. Ding-dong exchanges between the two former District Champions saw Paterson lead 4-0 then crossed 8-4 before battling back with a run of 2, 1, 1, 1, to edge 9-8 ahead; but Marshall raised pulse rates with a run of 4, 2, 1 to take over the driving seat at 15-9. Marshall was still being kept on his toes with pressure at 20-18 but he answered the questions being asked and bagged the points with a single to 21.
Bainfield made a great start in the Pairs with Graham Fergus and Steven Pilley leading 10-3 after five ends but suffered a scoreline collapse to 12-18 then a strong 1, 3, 1 finish failed to prevent an 18-17 defeat from David Ross and Jamie Gracie. Slateford also made a sluggish start in the Triples with Dougie Martin, Colin Gilchrist, and Gordon Ramsay losing 7-1 after six ends but staging a strong recovery to cross 13-9 and win 13-10 against Adam Brock, Stuart Clark, and Paul Millar. It was a different story in the Fours with the Slateford rink of Louis Beaton, Grant McAdam, Graham McAdam, and Andrew Ramsay including a magnificent count of seven as they blazed a 22-3 trail and won 24-8 against Brian Stoddart (skip).
·
Kirkliston are hunting a record extending 13th title success in the WLBA Top Five Singles and stepped up their 2015 challenge with a 3-1 away win over 2011 champions Newbridge in Tuesday night’s quarterfinals action. Wins for internationalist trio Steven Forrest, Grant Logan, and Neil Speirs clinched a win that saw the home sides only success delivered by Blair Mackie.
The head to heads started off with a sensational performance from Forrest who destroyed recent No8 WLMasters seed Alec Allan, 21-4, in 15-ends – an astonishing result against the 53-year old many times Newbridge champion. Grant Logan clashed with his Scotland colleague Thomas Mann –another multi times champion of the club – and the 39-year old Kirkliston ace turned up trumps with a 1,1, 3 finish to win 21-13 in 24-ends.
Blair Mackie got Newbridge up and running with an exciting 21-19 win over Raymond Logan in 20-ends having recovered from 16-10 down to the 1998 national champion. Battles between the Speirs brothers are normally close run affairs but on the occasion Neil clinched the match for Kirkliston rather easily having breezed into a 17-6 lead and going on to beat James, 21-9 in 18-ends. Drew Paterson of Newbridge led Mark Allison 19-12 in the unfinished fifth game.