Edinburgh & Leith go for four wins in a row, and have home environment advantage, when they tackle West Fife at Maitland in todays East section fixture in the Scottish Cities and Counties Championship for The Hamilton Trophy.
Read MoreJoint team managers Duncan McLaren and Ricky Rutherford bring back Scott Rogers at the expense of Gordon Bold at second to Robert Marshall while Neil Watson continues at lead to James Hogg and having subbed for Ross Noble last weekend. Lewis Betts replaces the unavailable Craig Mackintosh and plays lead to team captain Paul Veitch.
E&Ls latest win over Border at Melrose was by 9 shots (122-113) and highlighted by a spectacular escape from team jail in the shape of Veitch and his rink of Craig Mackintosh, Gordon Ramsay, and Alan Brown scoring 20 shots for the loss of one on the run in to contribute a colossal 33-9 victory over Stuart White. Support came in the shape of a 22-11 win for Andrew Ramsay over Jamie Mitchell while John Ramsay finished peels however setbacks were suffered by Robert Marshall (-6), John McDermott (-10), and James Hogg (-10). Two shock results saw Midlothian, last seasons national runners up, suffer 132-100 defeat away to West Fife and East Lothian stunned by a 121-116 loss at home to Stirling County East. West Lothian beat Fife County, 123-93 at Kirkliston.
Todays other fixtures are; Fife v East Lothian at Strathmiglo; Stirling East c West Lothian at Bonnybridge; Midlothian v Borders at Rosslyn.
Luke Corbett of Sighthill has captured the Edinburgh & Leith Under 16s Singles Crown for the coveted Willie Wood Trophy, defeating Arron Betts of Craigentinny 13-11 in the semi finals then Robbie Beath of Carrick Knowe, 21-16 in the final.
Liam McKay of Tanfield The Tait Trophy Holder has reached the District 14 semi finals of both the national Singles and Junior Singles so will play J/S opponent Aaron Betts of Craigentinny at Wardie on Monday night.
McKay will be back at Wardie on Tuesday night to face Craig Ramsay of Leith in the Singles proper while David Brown of Craigentinny tackles ex colleague David Torrance, now of Willowbrae. The second semi final of the Under 25s features Josh Spalding of Craigentinny v Jordan Davidson of Queensberry.
Depression isnt suffocating the clubhouse atmosphere at Carrick Knowe where optimism and positivism always reign however there are hints of suppression as the mood of the membership puzzles over the unexpected poor start to their teams Division 2 campaign in the Alpha Trophies sponsored Edinburgh Bowling League.
This weeks match at home to Colinton was a chance to light the fuse of recovery however the spark remained weak and the best that could be managed was a 5-4 win that leaves them in joint fourth place with their beaten rivals plus Willowbrae. Just 4 points above West End in the relegation zone but more optimistically just 5 points behind table toppers Postal and with nine games to play there is time for the hot promotion favourites to find the accelerator and zoom their way into Division 1.
Even icon figure Colin Mitchell was unable to deliver the goods against Colinton with the former Scotland captain and his strong front-three of Kevin Tennant, Bob Mitchell, and Stephen Pringle only counting at 6 of the 17 ends and suffer a 16-11 defeat from David Fisher. Richard Tough also lost, going down 19-14 to Ross Byers, however wins for James Hogg (22-7) and Paul ODonnell (20-11) combined to dominate the aggregate (66-53) and so capture the bonus point. Other results: Pilrig 2 Postal 5; Hillside 4 West End 5; Wardie 3 Willowbrae 6.
Craigentinny, the defending champions in Division 1, passed their first major test with flying colour the record nine times title winners defeating chief rivals Parkside 7-2, albeit with home advantage. Andrew Jeffrey carded a knife-edge single at the last to secure a 17-16 win over Paul Veitch while Andy Caldwell finished 1, 5, (1), 2, 2, 2, 7 to crush Brian Salvona 30-7; and Willie McDonald hammered Neil Watson, 23-4. Robert Donaldson skipping Robert Maywood, David Moran, and Colin Hairs spared Parkside blushes with an 18-9 win over Daniel Gormley. Other results: Northern 5 Queensberry 4; Maitland 7 Tanfield 2; Summerside 7 Brunstane 2.
Bainfields 7-2 win away at Corstorphine saw them jump to the top of Division 3 ahead of Goldenacre who lost 6-3 at home to Leith. Sighthill (away) clobbered Whitehouse & Grange, 8-1, while Mayfield beat Dudley, 6-3. Slateford moved into third place in Division 4 with a 7-2 win at home to pre-match table toppers Currie while Dean took over with a 7-2 win at Blackhall; Gorgie Mills crushed LRF 9-0 and Seafield beat Merchiston, 7-2.
Gilmerton ace Steven Currie survived a marathon singles clash against John Weighand of Arniston in the Midlothian Quarter Finals of the National championships, carding a single on end 30 to clinch an epic 21-20 thriller. Andy Wilton of Kirkhill- first round conqueror of recent gold medal hero Ronnie Duncan looked good at 19-16 up on Stuart Fleming of Inveresk but had no answers to a 2, 1, 1, 1 finish. Daniel McDougall (Buccleuch) and Ricky Delaney (Newcraighall) also reached next weeks semi finals. Favourites Peter Kerr and David Peacock made a 17-15 exit in the Pairs to Craig Hodge and Craig Adamson of Loanhead MW.
Last years winners Kirkliston, and finalists Linlithgow, survived the first round play of The Rosebery Cup (1882) defeating Glenmavis (74-45) and Bathgate (60-54) respectively.