Bowls: Magnificent seven fires E&L to victory

Edinburgh & Leith bowlers maintained the growing momentum of their Cities & Counties campaign for The Andrew Hamilton Trophy with a 124-106 victory (124-106) over Fife County in their East section match at Craigentinny.

Fife tend to be poor travellers – although they did beat Borders in their opening match – and lost by 34 shots to Midlothian, so the E&L support will be disappointed at the margin but the team did show resilience to overcome a sluggish start.

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“We only showed one shot ahead (65-64) after 12 ends and I felt a bit concerned about that,” said E&L team boss Willie Watson. However, E&L suddenly clicked through the gears with a rapid response of 6-3 and 16-2 over the next two ends giving them a lead of 18 points and ahead on four of the six rinks.

On end 14, Robert Marshall conjured up the magic moment that sparked the E&L charge towards glory, with the Slateford ace expertly turning an opposition bowl out of the head for a magnificent seven-shot reward.

“The whole place erupted and with James Hogg, Paul O’Donnell and Mal Higgenbotham supporting the 7 with counts of 4, 3, and 2 respectively, there was an instant boost to our morale across the green,” said Watson.

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O’Donnell, Marshall and Hogg went on to chalk up wins with their rinks and were joined in that respect by Willie McDonald, while Higgenbotham and team captain Billy Mellors both lost.

E&L made heavy weather of the first seven-end phase of the match but did manage to edge it 42-38. They then produced a more exciting passage of play to dominate the second, 45-31, before idling on the third and having to share it 37-37.

“I would have liked a stronger finish on our home territory but the job was done and I sense a stronger sense of self believe is returning to our ranks and, if that’s the case, then our future can be bright,” added Watson

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O’Donnell looked an unlikely match hero for E&L when trailing 8-0 after three ends but the 26-year-old Bainfield star soon skipped Neil Watson, Ian Paterson and Paul Veitch on a run of 3, 1, 3, 2, 1, 3, that accelerated them into a 17-10 lead over James Forbes.

O’Donnell and Co then included a strong finish of 2, 1, 1, (1), 1, 1 to clinch the headline 23-12 victory.

Marshall preceded his highlight moment of the 7 with an opening blitz of 3, 3, 2, and 2 to lead 10-0 and he went on to skip Alan Trotter, Brian Stoddart and John McDermott to a 27-17 win over Alan Hill.

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McDonald produced a purple patch finish of 1, 3, 1 5, 2 to skip Andrew Caldwell, Alan Brown and Jamie Gracie to a 24-14 win over Steven Bone, while Scott Noble, Russell Wilson, Darren Hus and Hogg beat Raymond White, 20-16.

Fife caused pain with Wayne Hogg defeating Mal Higgenbotham, 28-15, and Stuart Bone beating Mellors, 19-15.

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