The same again selection for match number two in the Cities and Counties Championship for The Hamilton Trophy is common practice but to do so for Edinburgh & Leiths major head to head with East Lothian at Parkside today was an agonising decision for joint managers Duncan McLaren and Ricky Rutherford.
Read MoreTheir vote of confidence in a team that demolished Fife County by a massive 50 shots (148-98) in the opening match of the East section at Sighthill has come at the expense of returning top stars Darren Hush, Richard Tough, and Neil Watson watching from the reserve bench. The win against Fife was no great surprise with E&L delivering an expected victory on home territory against weaker opposition but the encouraging aspect for the new management team was the almost clean sweep nature of the triumph.
Robert Marshall was just edged out to suffer a single shot defeat but the other five battles for supremacy across the green were won in aggressive style by the rinks skipped by James Hogg, Paul Veitch, Andrew Ramsay, John Ramsay, and John McDermott. Hogg enjoyed a purple spell of 2, 6, 4 (1), 4, 1, 1 to lead 22-4 after 13 ends and went on to skip Ross Noble, Andy McNab, and Liam McKay to a 24-11 win over Raymond Whyte.
Veitch zipped from 8-13 to 25-13 with a lightening run of 1, 4, 4, 2, 6 then skipped Craig Mackintosh, Scott Rogers, and Alan Brown to a 29-18 win over David Graham. Ramsay (Andrew) celebrated his return to The Hamilton Trophy scene with a 21-11 win over Damon Creevy having skipped Graeme Eddington, Steven Pilley, and Craig Paterson from 6-6 to 19-6 with a thundering run of 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 5.
Ramsay (John) stormed into a 16-0 lead with a whirlwind run of 2, 2, 1, 3, 3, 1, 3, 1 then skipped Stephen Pringle, David Fisher, and Kevin Tennant to a 31-20 win over David Comrie. McDermott made telling space from 16-16 to 25-16 with counts of 5, 2, 2, then skipped Stuart Isbister, Stevie Ritchie, and Robert Donaldson to 25-19 win over Alan Pearson. Marshall and his front three of Adam Brock, Gordon Bold, and Jamie Gracie were out of sorts at 19-10 down but closed to 18 with a spirited closing run of 2, 3, 1, 1, 1 against Bruce Doig.
East Lothian were off the boil in last seasons campaign but with redemption in mind made a blistering start to 2018 by inflicting a 20 shot roasting (125-105) on West Fife at Inverkeithing, The stars of The Garden County returning from a tough challenge across The Forth with wins on the rinks skipped by Billy Mellors (+21), Steven Morgan (+11), Scott Kennedy (+1), and Mal Higgenbotham (+1) while Colin Glen finished all square and Brian Young lost by 12,Todays line up against E&L reads, Rink 1. C Dick, T Young, B Dunleavie, and B Young. Rink 2. D Young, D Riva, D Sked, and B Mellors. Rink 3. S Anderson, G Baillie, S Mackie, and S Morgan. Rink 4. C Johnston, M McCormack, C McLeod, and S Kennedy. Rink 5. R Thomson, G Pryde, G White, and C Glen. Rink 6. M Greenan, J Blair, SW Thomson, and M Higgenbotham.
West Lothian opened with an impressive 19 shot away win over a competitive Border team at Gordon BC and are unchanged for todays even tougher test against Midlothian at Linlithgow. Midlothian continue to campaign without three star skips in the shape of Ronnie Duncan, Colin Walker, and Ramsay Blair but shaped up well to beat Stirling County East by a phenomenal 75 shots at Newbattle.
Edinburgh and The Lothians suffered, in a bowls context, a catastrophic prelim round wipe-out in the Purdie Worldwide Scottish Inter County Top Ten Tournament.
West Lothian giants Kirkliston made a dramatic last bowl exit, by 2 shots, away to Adrian of Stirling County, and East Lothian king pins Cockenzie & Port Seton lost 5-3 away to Dumfries.
Edinburgh champions Sighthill went down by 3 shots at home to far travelled Tarves of Aberdeen & Kincardine while Deantown of Midlothian crashed 8-0 away to Law of Lanarkshire.
Division 2 of the Alpha Trophies sponsored Edinburgh Bowling League was expected to be dominated by star studded Carrick Knowe but the Water of Leith giants have been found to have wobbly knees in two away tests. An opening 5-4 defeat at West End has been followed by a similar 5-4 setback at Wardie and this coming weeks visit to Postal is an even stiffer formbook test for a classy club finding out that life in the top end of the EBL is much more competitive than it ever was in the Water of Leith League. Postal down from Division 1 have been no great shakes themselves so far but this weeks 7-2 win over West End should inspire them to have a real go at adding to the current bloody nose syndrome of their illustrious visitors. Two other clubs of giant reputation in the former WOL set up in the shape of Slateford and Gorgie Mills have yet to shine in lowly Division 4 of the EBL but a third one in the shape of middle order Currie sit top some six and 12 points ahead of their former masters.
Midlothian ace Ronnie Duncan a double gold medal hero in Australia 2018 has made a first round exit in his District play of the national singles losing 21-15 to Andy Wilton of Kirkhill.