THE Edinburgh & Leith camp is chirpy and confident, and rightly so, having launched the outdoor bowls season with a 19-shot victory over East Lothian in their opening match of the Scottish Under-25 League Cup at Elphinstone.
E&L captured the national title last season, but East Lothian, especially on their home territory, represented formidable opposition for the first match of the new season and it took a champion display from the Capital bowlers to beat them.
"We ma
naged to win on four of the six rinks and the fact that we were ahead on all three phases of the match indicates that this is a team performance that we can be mighty pleased about," said a spokesman for E&L. Jamie Gracie, Colin Hutchison, Chris Steven and John McDermott skipped the winning rinks, while the downside saw Gary Connelly and Paul O'Donnell both suffer defeat.
While the defending champions are cock-a-hoop at their great start to the section campaign, there is disappointment in the East Lothian camp that they failed to deliver a victory for Port Seton's Arthur Bellany who is this year's national president of the league.
"The match was fought out on a tightrope, but Chris Steven punished us 14-0 on his run in and that killed us off," said a spokesman for East Lothian.
E&L edged the first 7-end phase of the match 50-46 thanks in the main to a trailblazing 13-2 contribution from John McDermott, then an 11-3 input from Gary Connelly helped them to a 43-39 return on the second.
Steven and his front three of Ross Neil, Mark Hogg and Stuart Patterson were the E&L heroes on the third phase to give the visitors a 46-35 domination that wrapped up a 139-120 victory.
The full article contains 311 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
