Craigentinny claim fine EBL win at champions Parkside

Craigentinny showed signs of mounting a serious title challenge in Division One of the Alpha Trophies Edinburgh Bowling League as the record seven-times winners returned from a visit to defending champions Parkside with a 7-2 victory.

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Wins on the rinks skipped by Scott Rogers, Andy Caldwell and Daniel Gormley also combined to earn the bonus point for the visitors, leaving Parkside the crumbs of a home win delivered by Kevin Boyd.

Boyd tried to give his colleagues a spark by exploding into a 16-7 lead then skipping John Bell, Ewan Diven, and Andy Hargan to a 21-10 win over Andrew Jeffrey.

But Robert Donaldson lost touch with his opposition when conceding a seven at end seven to go 13-8 down to Caldwell, who turned the screw by skipping Josh Spalding, Malky Milne and Davie Brown to a 24-16 victory.

Rogers established a 14-5 supremacy over Neil Watson and went on to skip Darren Smith, Lewis Betts and Gary Nisbet to a 19-10 triumph.

Gormley made a blitz start to lead 11-0 before skipping David Torrance, Scott Duncan and Willie McDonald to an 18-12 win over Paul Veitch.

While Craigentinny rejoiced at extending their points lead over Parkside to 5½, they have yet to shake off the challenge from a Maitland team that achieved a tremendous 7-2 away win over Queensberry.

Maitland just sit a half-point adrift of the leaders and five points ahead of third-placed Parkside. However, there are now growing concerns for Queensberry as last season’s high flying runners-up are presently sitting on the second-from-bottom rung.

Northern and Hillside sit in mid-table, the former tipping the scales to edge a 5-4 win over Tanfield while the latter inflicted 7-2 damage on bottom team Pilrig.

Rink scores

Queensberry v Maitland: John Kidd 23, Brian Higgins 8; Brian Pollard 9, Graeme McIntosh 24; Scott Walker 11, Gordon Clark 21; Frank O’Reilly 12, Alan Trotter 15.

Northern v Tanfield: Jamie Reid 14, Andy McNab 8; James Barr 23, Mal Higgenbotham 20; Ian Miller 9, Robert White 8; Gordon Wilson Jnr 13, Stuart Campbell 17.

Hillside v Pilrig: BJ Smith 24, Euan Craig 8; Brian Irving 20, Darren McArdle 11; Colin Hairs 15, Graeme Gow 10; Colin Bell 14, Darren McKenny 16.