PORTOBELLO staged their final of the indoor bowls national qualifying Triples championship last night and a clash of the generations saw the younger brigade of Jamie Reid, John McDermott and Andrew Caldwell emerge triumphant.
The Caldwell-skipped trio restricted their more senior opposition of John Shields, Stuart McFarlane and Eddie Tomany to counts at just four of the 15 ends and ran out worthy 18-9 winners.
The triumph was a big result for Reid as the 16-year-old sc
hoolboy can now look forward to parading his skills for the first time in the limelight of a national campaign.
Tomany and Co made an encouraging start to lead 4-3 after five ends, however, eight ends of misery saw them suffer the loss of 3, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1 and 1 as Caldwell engaged top gear to motor into a commanding 17-4 lead.
"We lost a 5 at the next but the clock was on our side and we wrapped up the title with a single," said Caldwell, 22.
The Seniors Fours was another national qualifier down for decision with the rink of Stuart Shaw, John Moodie, Jimmy Marshall and Ian Paterson having the look of favourites about them.
Paterson duly delivered by skipping his front three to a comfortable 15-9 win over Bob Cranston, Jim McLeod, Tom Salvona and Gordon Dickson.
The major breakthrough for Paterson came with a middle-match run of 3, 2, 1, 1 that doubled his score from 7 to 14-4 and although Dickson did make an impression with a mighty 5 it came too late.
The success of Andrew Caldwell and John McDermott in the Triples comes on top of a dramatic success they achieved last weekend against Andrew Binnie and Willie Paul in the final of the Two-Bowl Pairs.
Binnie and Paul – capped 18 and 45 times respectively back in the 1970s and 80s – produced their magic touch of old in the first set to impressively capture it 9-3, but they found themselves 7-4 adrift playing the last in the second.
Paul produced a cracker of a last-bowl trail to card 3 shots for a 7-7 peel and the partnership thought it was also a match winner, however, the rules of this event is that each set has to be won and the extra end went in favour of the younger opposition.
Taking the final into a third set where the after-effects of the second saw Caldwell and McDermott on a high but Binnie and Paul on a low and reflected by a 9-2 romp for the former.
Tonight's finals (7.00pm) feature the women's Fours and the Mixed Triples.
The full article contains 457 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
