THERE was double joy for the East Lothian bowling community last week as both the Scottish Triples title and the Senior Scottish Cup were secured for East Lothian.

The strong trio of Yvonne Veitch, Margaret Thomson and Emma Brown brought great honour to the East Lothian IBC banner at the weekend.

The three leading lights paraded their skills in splendid fashion to capture the Scottish Triples title in the national finals at Prestwick Ambassador IBC.

Wins over Aberdeen and Galleon were achieved in admirable fashion, with the domestic champions of the Garden County in tip-top form to snuff out the challenge of tough opposition.

The Aberdeen trio of Marion Fraser, Kathleen McIntosh and Margaret Durward were favourites to land the title and it was them who dominated the early exchanges to lead 5-2 after four ends played. But Brown and Co quickly recovered to draw level at 10-10 after 12 ends and then took control of proceedings in the final phase of the engrossing semi-final clash to win 16-13.

The final against Grace McCulloch, Ann Gilmour and Jean McFedries of Galleon proved to be a tough test of focus and mental concentration, with the Garden County trio mostly operating on the back foot to face the prospect of defeat at 7-5 down.

But the trio showed a killer instinct by conjuring up a magical count of eight shots on the 13th end to turn the final on its head before going on to clinch an 18-11 victory and spark scenes of jubilation with family and friends who had made the trip to Ayrshire.

East Lothian continues to have an impressive hallmark of success in the history of bowls and Brown, Thomson and Veitch were stamping their own names on that list of triumphs by becoming the first ladies to bring the Scottish Triples title back to Meadowmill.

“We will take a lot of confidence from this; there was a great atmosphere throughout which helped a lot and it feels brilliant – it will take a while to sink in,” said a jubilant Brown.

And that wasn’t all to celebrate last week, as the Senior Scottish Cup is back nesting in the trophy cabinet at Meadowmill for a third time after a thrilling one-shot victory over Whiteinch in the final at Arbroath IBC last Wednesday.

The Garden County ‘auld yins’ went into the cup final as hot favourites to defeat their challengers from West Section B but were given a tremendous fight by the Glasgow-based side.

A win for the rink skipped by Willie Wood and a peel for Tom Young just managed to carry the day for East Lothian but Whiteinch did manage to deal bloody noses to the rinks skipped by Peter Laidlaw and Ronnie Douglas.

Not for the first time in his illustrious career, Wood emerged the East Lothian hero after he ditched the jack with the final delivery of the game to clinch a 65-64 victory.

“The shot Willie played will be remembered by many for a long time to come and it was a tremendous end to a fantastic final played in good spirits by both sets of players,” said senior team convenor John P Hamilton.

Wood only dropped shots at five of the 17 ends and skipped Brian Bissett, Ross Maguire and Billy Higgins to an inspired 22-10 win over Grant Colquhoun.

Young skipped Arthur Duncan, John Hamilton and Alistair Russell into an 11-3 lead after 11 ends but a late collapse saw them having to settle for a 17-17 share of the spoils with Tom Clark.

Laidlaw and his rink of Kenny Boyd, Jim Robertson and B J Smith dropped five shots over the final few ends to lose 19-14 against Hugh Murray, while Douglas and his front three of Lessel Middler, John McLeod and Jock Brodie were mostly against the collar in an 18-12 defeat from John Condy.

Meanwhile, a senior side from East Lothian lost out in the final of the Central District Seniors Top Six when they went down 4-2 on points against defending champions Perth at West Lothian IBC on Saturday.

Davie McLeod lost out 21-12 in the singles while Kenny Boyd, Jim McLeod and Ronnie Douglas went down 12-10 in the triples clash. The pairing of Arthur Duncan and Alistair Russell did grab a consolation win with a 14-12 triumph in their pairs battle.

The sections for next season’s Scottish Premier League campaign were drawn at the weekend’s national finals and East Lothian have been drawn in a competitive-looking B section, which features Ardrossan, Aberdeen, Paisley, Lanarkshire and Falkirk. The semi-final action in the Jock Brodie Senior Challenge Cup, sponsored by Norman T Craig and Co-operative Funeral & Monumental Services, took centre stage at Meadowmill on Wednesday and fireworks were expected as East Lothian A tackled East Lothian B, while the other clash featured defending champions Perth against Midlothian. The grand final will be staged this coming Wednesday at 11am.

On the domestic front, finals week at East Lothian IBC will kick-off on Sunday evening at 6pm when defending champions Gifford tackle Castlepark in the final of East Coast Carpets-sponsored Top Club tournament.

On Monday evening the finals of the Division 1 play-off, Top Four, gents’ Scottish fours and Division 2 play-off are all down for decision.

The following day the Saturday morning triples, ladies’ Scottish fours, senior Scottish fours, ladies’ 2-bowl singles and Division 1 finals will all be staged, while on Wednesday the finals of the senior Scottish triples, gents’ Scottish triples, gents’ Scottish 2-bowl pairs, ladies’ Scottish triples and under-13 singles all take place.

Thursday sees the youth pairs, gents’ Scottish 4-bowls pairs, ladies’ Scottish 4-bowls pairs, ladies’ Scottish 2-bowl pairs, Scottish senior pairs and ladies’ senior pairs will all reach their climax.

Finals week will come to a conclusion next Friday evening with a huge night of action as the finals of the gents’ singles, ladies’ singles, senior singles, gents’ junior singles, ladies’ junior singles and youth singles are all down for decision. All finals during the course of finals week start at 6.30pm.