BORDER BOWLING ASSOCIATION
Following the magnificent win against East Lothian last week the Hamilton Trophy team were keen to repeat the feat by beating West Lothian at Coldstream on Saturday.
As is becoming a habit, they had a very poor start, losing 11 shots across the six rinks on the first end.
After the fifth end, they were already 20 shots adrift with only one Borders rink ahead of their opponents.
The gap was cut for a short while, but West Lothian pulled away again to win 117-92.
Only the one Border rink – Ben McGregor (Melrose), Gary Thorburn (Waverley), Craig Martin (Gordon) and David Miller Jnr (Waverley) – managed to finish with a win, beating C. Logan’s rink 21-15.
Skips and scores (Borders first): A. Brady 15 N. Speirs 24; R. Kerr 18 S. Fleming 19; R. Nichol 15 G. Logan 19; G. Forsyth 11 R. Logan 18; D. Miller Jnr 21 C. Logan 15; I. Crawford 12 T. Mann 22.
In the fifth match of the series on Saturday, the team travels to Camelon near Falkirk to play Stirlingshire East.
In a busy weekend, the Under-25s face Fife at Newtown and the Chirnside club travel to Colinton for the semi-finals and final of the Top 10.
In addition, the district finals for the Scottish competitions are being played at Spittal.
The prize for the individual winners of each category is a trip to Ayr at the end of July to play in the Scottish Finals.
GALASHIELS
The seniors were in action last Tuesday with an away fixture at Hawick.
They found the green to be running at a good pace and all four rinks started off very well.
The team was well ahead at one stage and although Hawick did make some progress towards the end it was not enough to prevent another win for the Gala seniors.
Despite the poor first match of the season, the team has now climbed to fourth place with a game in hand on two of the teams above them.
The ladies played on the Tuesday evening, this time at home to Wilton. The weather was poor and they just managed to complete the 11 ends necessary for the match to be declared finished. The Wilton ladies were ahead on both rinks, taking all five points.
Last Wednesday, the A team were due to play Hawick at home, but again the weather was poor and both teams decided to abandon the match, which will now be played at a later date.
The B team travelled to Hawick, where there was, in fact, no rain and therefore the match was played to a finish, resulting in a win for Hawick B.
More names are required for the annual friendly against Merchieston. Also the play-by date for the first round matches in the gents’ championship is approaching and where any match has not been played, action will be taken to eliminate players in default who have failed to use the challenge book.
LANGHOLM
A total of 24 triples took part in the Langholm Old Town American Invitation Tournament last Sunday.
The winners was the triple entered by local Roy Park, who played with Paddy Laing and Salvatore Panico, who beat mother and son Carolle and Paul Warwick and Stephen Rae.
Beaten semi-finalists were the Gretna entry of John and Brian Bryden and Graeme Kirkpatrick, and the local triple of Roger McMurdo, Wattie Beattie and George Gordon.
Old Town president Colin Turk made the cup presentation and thanked all those who had helped make the tournament a success.