Thurso pair lose out in quarter-finals
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THURSO Bowling Club’s Janet Sinclair and John Harris travelled to Hamilton last Friday to compete for the national mixed pairs title.
They got off to a winning start beating Glasgow’s Mount Vernon Bowling Club’s representatives 18-13. They carried on their good form in the second round and came away with a 19-13 win over Motherwell’s Colville Parks pair.
Unfortunately, their run was halted at the quarter-final stage when, after leading for most of the match, they conceded three shots on the last end to lose by two shots. Although a bit downbeat after their exit, they can be proud of reaching the latter stages of a keenly contested championship.
Thurso’s hopes of winning a northern counties title at Fraser Park green in Inverness ended on Sunday when their singles and rinks were both beaten in the final.
Brian Cormack had a good win in his semi-final against G. Jamieson, from Grantown, winning 21-9, but was ousted in the final by Inverness Bowling Club’s Kevin Bowie.
Brian struggled early on but came back from 18-9 down to lead 20-18 and was twice lying game, but Kevin produced two excellent bowls to deny Brian the win.
The rinks of Calum Elder, Peter Knapp, Nigel Gower and Douglas Morrison defeated the Golspie rink in the semi but had no answer against an on-fire Brora four in the final, losing out by a few shots.
On the domestic front two competitions have been played over the last two weeks – the first being the G.A. Henderson Optometrist-sponsored 2-4-2 pairs.
This gives the players a chance to play a different format with the skipper playing two bowls then the lead four and the skipper finishing the end with two more. After two nights’ play the first semi-final saw Ronnie Bain jnr and Lorna McDermid take on Keane Miller and Alan Morrison with Ronnie and Lorna winning by four shots.
The second semi saw Danny Hitchin and Ronnie Bain snr defeat Johnny MacKay and Judy Mowat by seven shots. The final was a close-fought game with Danny and Ronnie snr taking a slender two-shot lead into the last end. Ronnie jnr and Lorna could not pick up the shots they required and Danny and Ronnie snr took the trophy.
A busy period of bowling ended on Saturday with the DSRL-sponsored balloted pairs being played.
First through to the semi-finals were Marina Bain and Dar Sutherland who faced Peter Dymond snr and Douglas Morrison. Peter and Douglas built up an early lead and held on to safely make it to the final.
The bottom half of the draw saw Peter Knapp and Ronnie Bain snr record a win over Jessie Meiklejohn and Peter Dymond jnr to book their spot in the final.
The final proved to be a cracker with both teams playing well and the lead changing hands several times. Going into the last end Peter and Ronnie held a two-shot lead but Peter and Douglas managed to secure a three to earn a hard-fought victory.
