Bowls: Dumbarton duo reach final of national competition

Apr 2 2010 by Andy Galloway, Lennox Herald (main ed)

THE national indoor championship finals for ladies and gents pairs, ladies and gents triples, ladies and gents fours and gents senior fours took place last weekend at Prestwick IBC.

And for Dumbarton duo Robert and Graeme Sloan in the gents’ pairs, it was a case of so near and yet so far.

In the semi-final against Midlothian IBC, they made a good start and led 17-9 after 15 ends.

However, they dropped eight shots over the remaining five ends to go into the last end level at 17 shots all.

In the last end, they scored the all-important match-winning shot to reach the final against Elgin IBC, which took place on Sunday morning.

Once again they made a bright start to the game, scoring four shots at the first end.

But Elgin pulled the game back and after 10 ends led 11-7.

Unfortunately for Robert and Graeme, the Elgin pairing piled on the pressure, scoring 13 shots over the next nine ends to win the final by 23-7.

Nevertheless, it was a great effort by Robert and Graeme to reach their first national final.

IN the ladies’ inter-club league final play-off, Dumbarton took on West of Scotland in the away leg. The two home games are being played next Thursday.

Results were (Dumbarton rinks first):

Cath Beaton, Patsy Rowan, Margaret Stickings, Ann Jardine 22, Jan Woodlee 9; Brenda Jones, Pat McCallan, Liz Fraser, Rita Murray 15, M Blanchflower 15.

These results gave Dumbarton five points and West of Scotland one point. This leaves the home team only requiring two points out of a possible six to win the title.

THE final stages of the Scottish Young Indoor Bowling Association’s Junior Top Ten competition took place at Abbeyview IBC last Sunday.

Dumbarton and District IBC were represented by: Singles - Richard O'Malley; Pairs - Tom Allan, Allan Air; Triples - Nathan Bonnar, Christopher Mair, Dylan Whitefield; Fours - Scott Douglas, Sarah Miller, Keiran Ward, Colin McIntyre. Reserve: Conner McGhee

The semi finals were played in the morning, with Dumbarton playing against Blantyre, but they were beaten in the singles, triples and fours and held to a draw in the pairs.

In the afternoon, Dumbarton played Alloa for third and fourth place, but once again Alloa proved to be the stronger team, winning the singles, pairs and triples and drawing the fours.

Although finishing in fourth place, the team from Dumbarton all received medals and once again this was good experience for a young team, who have the enthusiasm to progress further in junior competitions.