Bowls: Big guns get ready for Top Ten final

The final of the Edinburgh Top Ten Championship at Willowbrae on Saturday (2pm) sees titleholders Carrick Knowe facing Craigentinny who already have the Top Five trophy in their cabinet.

The final also has extra spice in that Carrick Knowe are the Water of Leith 1st Sixteen League Champions and Craigentinny are three in a row winners of Division 1 of the Edinburgh Bowling League.

In the Singles Colin Mitchell leads the way for Carrick Knowe with Andrew Caldwell Craigentinny’s hope.

Carrick Knowe field three of their national fours-winning rink in the Triples with international trial player James Hogg skipping Graham Pringle and Craig Aitken against Darren Smith, Grant McLaren and Kevin McFarlane.

Darren Hush skips Kevin Tennant for Carrick Knowe in the Pairs while Richard Tough skips Andy Beath, Stephen Pringle and Ian McKenna in the rink.

The Craigentinny pairing features Daniel Gormley Jnr and Willie McDonald while Ian Paterson skips Craig McCall, John Shields and David Brown in the Fours.

In the semi-finals Carrick Knowe made it through by defeating Bainfield 6-2 and Craigentinny win by the same score against Leith.

n QUEENSFERRY (1877) is the historic venue for tonight’s final of the BARBQ-sponsored WLBA Top Five Singles featuring Newbridge against Blackburn with a start time of 6pm.

Newbridge have a good record in the event having etched their name on the Trophy four times since the tournament’s inception in 1977 while Blackburn have the great incentive of trying to capture the honour for the first time.

Newbridge will start as title favourites as they field a strong five in Hamilton Trophy experienced James Speirs Jnr, Drew Paterson, Alec Allan, Blair Mackie and full internationalist Thomas Mann.

Champion of Champions holder Robert Hilson is the big name for Blackburn and he is backed up by George Reynolds, Davie Thomson, Robert Uttley and Tommy Lee.

The draw for the final has been made and it threw up the following pairings: James Speirs Jnr v George Reynolds; Drew Paterson v Robert Hilson; Thomas Mann v Davie Thomson; Alec Allan v Robert Uttley and Blair Mackie v Tommy Lee.

The BARBQ sponsors are Bankton Mains, Armadale, Ratho, Broxburn and Queensferry.

The semi-final action saw Newbridge win their battle of the giants 3-1 against Bathgate at Bankton Mains while Blackburn progressed at the 3- 1 expense of Philpstoun at Broxburn.