It was another busy day at the Northern on Saturday as we hosted the Edinburgh Bowling Association County Finals across various disciplines.
With representatives from six different clubs as well as their fans all visiting us it worked out well that the Sun shone all day, creating perfect conditions for this showpiece event featuring some of the top names in Edinburgh bowls.
On rink 1 it was Mark Church from Colinton vs Danny Gormley of Craigentinny in the County Gents Singles and it was Gormley who generally started the strongest, taking a 10-4 lead into the 9th end. Disaster soon struck for them though as Mark went on to take a 4 followed by a 2 to draw even. Bowls scores really can turn around in just a couple of ends. The match stayed tight from that point onwards with each player trading shots but in the 21st end, with the score 18-17 in Mark Churches favour, he went on to win a 1 followed by a 2 for a well deserved 21-17 win.
Meanwhile over on rink 3 it was Tanfield vs Colinton in the County Pairs in what proved to be a tight match over the first 10 ends with the score poised at 10-7 in Tanfields favour. The boys from Inverleith then went on to win a 5 in the 11th and this perhaps deflated Colinton a bit as Tanfield then went on to hold firm for an overall 20-9 win after 16 ends.
Over on rink 4 was the County Under 30’s Championship Final between Trystan White of Wardie and Charlie Mitchell of Carrick Knowe and it was another tight game with a score of 9-8 in Trystans favour after 10 ends had been played. It was around this point that Trystan really caught the green though as they went on to win 6 of the following 7 ends to make it 18-9 and while Charlie did fight back they ultimately couldn’t do enough to stop themselves falling to a 21-16 defeat.
Elsewhere rink 5 was host to the County Fours Final between Hillside and Craigentinny and after 10 ends the score was 6-6 in another hotly contested and tight game between some top teams. However, Craigentinny then went on to win 5 ends in a row to give themselves a dominant lead of 15-6 with only 2 ends left to play and while Hillside did win a single shot in the 16th end it wasn’t enough as Craigentinny took the 17th for a final score of 16-7 in their favour.
Over in the shade on rink 6 it was Carrick Knowe vs Craigentinny in the County Triples final and it started with a bang as Carrick Knowe won a 5 in the very first end and while Craigentinny won their own fair share of ends to keep the score respectable at 8-5 against them going into the 9th, it just wasn’t enough as they then lost a 3 and Carrick Knowe kept their form going to eventually win 15-8.
As always it’s an honour for Northern to host big events like this and hopefully we get some more in future years. It’s a shame that we couldn’t make the finals ourselves, especially with it being hosted at home, but we’ll be back stronger next year to compete again and wherever next years final is being held I hope to see you all there!
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