Northern Gents Fours Progress To Ayr!

Our rink of Gordon Wilson Snr, Darren Prentice, Euan Craig and Gordon Wilson Jnr defeated the four from Tanfield 18-9 in a performance more than worthy of their prize of a trip to the National Championship Finals taking place in Ayr later this year

At a packed Queensberry on a sunny but windy evening, the green looked lush and seemed to be running fast, much like our own has been lately, and our lads took full advantage of that from the get-go to claim a 3 in the first end after curving around a wall of Tanfield Bowls and the second end was almost in reverse as our boys started playing short, but then skip supreme, young Gordon Wilson, drew with deadly precision to take a 1 with his final bowl, and it was a sign of things to come…

The third and fourth ends were very much touch and go with the teams trading a shot back and forth but again, our very own wee Gogs, rose to the occasion to make sure Northern finished the ends in control and, as such, it was 6-0 to our crew after that fourth end. A strong start

Things did however look totally different by the end of the sixth as Tanfield took an impressive 4, with bowls all around the jack, followed by a scrappy 2 to bring it back to 6-6, and to make the twenty or so Northern members and fans who had made the visit down for the night suddenly start to feel more nervous

But it certainly never made our members on the green nervous as after those two bad ends it was back to business as usual with Gordon Wilson Jnr again proving saviour with their final bowl. A true captains performance was then solidified in the 8th end when, with him stepping up to the mat, being two shots down, he took the shot with his first bowl, and then make it two with his second. Wee Gogs was on fire!

It couldn’t last all night though, and rink bowls is a team game, and in the 9th end it was Darren Prentice who played the perfect bowl which just couldn’t be matched by anyone to give the Northern another 1, despite various Tanfield attempts to remove it, and the 10th end resulted with the oppositions skip driving the white into the ditch but even that wasn’t enough to stop our rink from taking a 3 and full credit has to go to Gordon Wilson Snr as lead for putting the oppositions lead under so much pressure throughout the match, as well as to Darren and Euan for regularly being the shot themselves and putting their opponents under pressure before leaving it to the skips to battle it out

Our lads then grabbed a 1 and Tanfield claimed a 2 to halt our gents flow slightly but with a score of 14-8, the Northern were in control and the Tanfield players must have been starting to feel the pressure

They tried valiantly to battle through that pressure though and took another 1 in the thirteenth to give themselves some hope and they started the fourteenth really strongly, to be holding 3 or 4 until Captain Fantastic, young Wilson, stepped in again to steal a 1 with his final bowl

As mentioned before, rink bowls is a team game, and in the fifteenth end it was Euan Craigs turn to be the hero as, after a back and forth between the front ends, it was his bowl which nestled perfectly right behind the jack and with Tanfield feeling the pressure to remove it, but failing, Gordon Wilson Jnr again played a marvellous bowl to have the Northern take a 2 and know that going into the next end, all they needed was a 1 to end the match early.

And end it they did, as the Tanfield skip missed with a last ditch drive to have our players, and members, and fans in the stands, absolutely over the moon

A massive well done to Queensberry on hosting the finals this year – The place was absolutely packed and everything ran smooth while the drinks were always flowing. The green was also seemingly in a really good shape and there were many faces from the Edinburgh Bowling Community on display to come and check out the showpiece event, and to see their friends

Anyway, when all is said and done, there are two major take aways – We’ve got an impressive rink in those gents and with some other promising, younger members, the future’s looking bright. Also, who’s gonna sort our boys out with pairs of white trousers?