The history and traditions of Postal BC date back to 1889 and their triumphs include three captures of the Tait Trophy – holy grail singles champion of champions event of Edinburgh & Leith – with J Thomson (1966), AW McInnes (1978) and Derek McLean (1986) the names inscribed on the famous silverware.
Read MoreThe outcome of Friday nights final (6-30) of The Club Championship will decide the player charged with the honour of representing The Postal Banner in the 2016 campaign of The Tait and it is a battle between Elliot Young and Stuart Turnbull. Young has previous experience of club championship celebration having captured the Postal crown in 2009 and his latest opportunity to relive that achievement was carved out by the thrilling escape to a 21-20 victory in Tuesday night’s semi finals action. Defeat looked the likely outcome when Young faced an uphill battle at 16-9 down to two times champion Neal Rooney (2008 and 2012); but Young responded to the challenge with a powerful rally of 3, 1, (1), 1, 3, 2 to cross 19-17. Rooney halted that wind of change with a tenacious 1, 2 reply to regain the lead at 20-19 however it was Young that hit the magic figure of 21 with a thrilling 1, 1 finish.
Turnbull is bidding to have his name etched on the club championship board for the first time and carved out that opportunity in exciting style as it took grandstand finish to sweep him to a 21-19 victory over his semi final opponent, Steven McIntosh. McIntosh played impressively to open up a 15-9 lead but faltered in front and allowed Turnbull to turn the tables with a fight back of 1, 1, 2, 3 that crossed him into a 16-15 lead. It was then a fierce battle to peels at 19-19 with the deadlock broken by a magic double to 21 from Turnbull.
The third round action in the Edinburgh Top Ten Championship saw the end of the road for title holders Slateford who, in a clash between two of the capital’s leading clubs, made a 5-3 exit away to Craigintinny. Craigintinny’s next challenge is in the semi finals against fellow EBL Division 1 club Northern on neutral territory at Postal. Northern were hard pressed in their match away to Dean but shot margin tipped the scales after a 4-4 share of the points.
Carrick Knowe produced a massive performance at home to Tanfield and crushed their talented rivals 8-0 to set up a semi final clash against Summerside at Goldenacre. Summerside – struggling at present to survive in Division 3 of the EBL – gave themselves a terrific morale boost by travelling to Division 1 club Hillside and having done well achieve a 4-4 share of the points clinched victory with a superior shot margin.