East Lothian Courier | Sport | County bowlers eye sixth Scottish title

Monday, 12th May, 2008

Published: Friday, 9th May, 2008 09:00

County bowlers eye sixth Scottish title

The Scottish Counties Championship swings into action tomorrow (Saturday) and East Lothian open their bid to recapture the coveted Andrew Hamilton Trophy for a sixth time against Borders at Port Seton (2pm start).

Expectations of another successful campaign are high, but some familiar names will be missing from the side announced by the selectors earlier this week.

Recently crowned East Lothian Indoor singles champion, James Hogg, is now a member at Edinburgh club Carrick Knowe and, although still a member of Castlepark, he has decided to switch his outdoor allegiance to Edinburgh & Leith as he now resides in the capital.

National indoor singles champion Scott Kennedy and Tranent ace Jamie Higgins have confirmed they cannot commit their services to the 2008 campaign. But better news for the garden county selectors is that the talented pairing of Stuart Johnston (Ormiston) and Brian ‘Sconie’ Young (Macmerry) are available again after a self-imposed exile.

There are debuts for promising East Linton youngster Grant Thompson and Haddington’s Stuart Dickson.

The iconic figure of 70-year-old icon Willie Wood MBE will continue to form the backbone of the county attack, along with fellow skips Alex Marshall, Struan Robertson, Steven Morgan, Alister Kennedy and Angus Blair.

Gary Murray replaces Norrie Cochrane as team captain. The full team is as follows: G.Murray (Orm) captain, D.Sked (WB), S.Glen (Hadd), A.Marshall (Giff) skip, M.Taylor (ELCO), S.Dickson (Hadd), C.Bonner (Hadd), A.O.Blair (Hadd), skip.

Dav Oliver (C&PS), N.Cochrane (Elph), B.Hunter (Aber), with S.Robertson (WB), skip. S.Johnstone (Orm), D.Logie (C&PS), R.Black (EL), WW Wood (WB), skip.

G.Thompson (EL), J.Blair (Hadd), R.Branley (C&PS), A.Kennedy (WB), skip.

S.Thomson (C/P), B.Young (Mac), Dek Oliver (C&PS), S.Morgan (C&PS), skip.

Reserve Pool: S.Clarke (Orm), C.Gordon (WB), D.Lowe (Orm), G.Lusk (ELCO), C.Fallen (ELCO), B.Dunleavey (Aber), I.Bell (Hadd), C.Glen (Hadd), J.Gordon (Tra).

Players and officials are requested to report to Port Seton for 1.30pm prior to the match.

Last Friday night’s action in the East Lothian leagues produced a shock result in Division 1, with a home defeat for five-in-a-row champions Port Seton.

Their conquerers were East Linton, whose excellent start to the campaign continued as they followed up a 6-2 midweek home win over West Barns to produce an excellent performance against the champions and pull off a shock 7-1 triumph.

Last season’s strugglers Tranent have made an encouraging start to this season’s campaign as they have collected 13 points out a possible 16 in their last couple of fixtures against Ormiston (7-1) and Macmerry (6-2) respectively.

EL-Coop made full use of home advantage to score a 6-2 win over Ormiston.

While nothing could separate West Barns and Castlepark in a 4-4 draw.

With three games played the league table reads as follows: East Linton 17, Tranent 17, Aberlady 13, Port Seton 12, West Barns 12, EL-Coop 9, Macmerry 7 and Ormiston 5.

In tonight’s (Friday’s) fixtures, defending champions Port Seton make the trip along the coast to tackle an Aberlady side looking to extend their unbeaten record to three games.

A mouth watering clash is in prospect at Prestonpans as Castlepark go head-to-head with EL-Coop, while West Barns enjoy home advantage over early season strugglers Ormiston.

Early season pace setters East Linton travel along the A1 to face Macmerry, while Tranent have a free week.

Meanwhile, the county’s under-25 side’s Scottish league campaign got off to a bad start last Sunday when they lost 139-120 to Edinburgh & Leith.

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