POSTAL challenger Christian Berra – father of the Hearts captain Christophe – scored a cracking 21-20 victory over Parkside star Robert Donaldson in last night's third round of the Edinburgh Bowling League Singles sponsored by Ian Mackay Contracts.
Donaldson – a national junior singles champion in 1998 and now an E&L regular – looked to have made the all-important break when he added 3, 2 and 1 to have Berra on the ropes with the score at 19-13. Two ends later it was 20-14. It was the last-chan
ce salooon for Berra and his answer to that challenge was to fiddle around with the placement of the mat. This positional change worked wonders in the shape of a fantastic run of 1, 2, 3 and 1 that earned him a sensational victory in 20 ends at Craigentinny.
"Robert is a very hard man to beat so I am pleased with this result and I hope things will get even 'Berra' for me," said Berra with a smile.
Meanwhile, one of Chris Steven's reasons for not pulling out of the EBL singles to accommodate Colin Mitchell in the Tait Trophy was that the Pilrig star had already eliminated two opponents and his name would have been mud had he ignored that.
Steven remained focused on his challenge to land the Singles honour for the North Edinburgh side and the opponent who paid the price with a 21-7 defeat at Craigmillar Park last night was Bill Ramsay of Mayfield, the EBL secretary.
In other clashes, Peter Grantham of Niddrie was soon 5-0 down to John Kidd of Queensberry but went on to clinch a 21-16 victory in 23 ends at Braid.
Gary Swain of Portobello finished 4, 1 and 1 to beat George Kyle of London Road Foundry 21-7 at Edinburgh BC, while Ian Gardiner of Maitland led 13-4 but came under pressure at 15-13 before adding 1, 2, 2 and 1 to beat Dougie Robertson of Hillside 21-13 at Mayfield.
Tam Ebbs of Civil Service made a break from 9-9 to 16-9 with a run of 3, 2 and 2 then went on to clinch a 21-14 win over Peter Whitten of Dudley at Queensberry while David Brown of Tipperlinn added a 4 to 17-10 and beat Colin Wood of Lutton Place 21-15.
One singles fixture fell foul of the weather with LRF unable to accommodate Ray Robertson of Willowbrae and Nicky Brown of Goldenacre, who will now play at Hillside on Monday night.
• KIRKLISTON, Linlithgow, and Broxburn are through to the semi-final stage of the BARBQ-sponsored WLBA Top Five Singles champion and will be joined by Buchan Park or Kinneil, whose quarter-final was postponed last night.
Kirkliston beat Bathgate 3-2 away, while Linlithgow scored a 4-1 home win over defending champions Newbridge and Broxburn triumphed 4-1 at Armadale.
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