West Barns B. C. captured the Inter County Top Five Single title at Sighthill BC in Edinburgh last Sunday following a 5-0 points victory over Castle Douglas in the final having edged out the challenge of Edinburgh champions Carrick Knowe in a tense 3-2 affair in the semi-final. The last four encounter against Carrick Knowe was always going to be an enthralling encounter with four current internationalists, two ex-internationalists and also throw in an Edinburgh Champion of Champion runner-up for good measure.
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First off was Billy Mellors who put the first point in the bag for the East Lothian champions with a 21-17 win over Richard Tough. Next off were Scott Kennedy and Scott Thorburn both losing 21-19 in ding-dong encounters to Darren Hush and Paul O’Donnell respectively. Alister ‘Bongo’ Kennedy then levelled the tie at 2-2 when he pipped former garden county star James Hogg, 21-17. This left centre stage to Calum Gordon and former world stage star Colin Mitchell and it was the underdog who stole the show and emerged the West Barns hero when a sparkling 4, 2, 1, 1 finish from 13-16 down saw him win 21-16 and put the ‘barns’ into the final. The final started off a tight affair but by the half way stage West Barns were beginning to assert themselves on proceedings. Again Billy Mellors led the way as he finished first again and registered a 21-11 victory closely followed by Scott Thorburn who won 21-13. Aptly it was player of the day Calum Gordon who was the hero again and the man to give West Barns the third point they required for victory. Once again involved in a tight battle Gordon produced the goods with a front toucher with his second bowl when leading 20-19 which his opponent could not remove and the garden county side were champions much to the delight of an excited travelling support. The Kennedy brothers Scott and Alister were leading 18-16 and 18-12 in their respective games when their opponents shook hands. “Having suffered defeat in the National Top Ten semi-final and an agonising finish to our league campaign the last two weekends have turned our season around and we can now go into next season’s National Top Ten as Top Five champions and also have the British Pairs champions in our midst – not bad for a wee village club”, reflected jubilant team captain Scott Kennedy.