Bowls: Ramsays roll on with final triumph at Craigentinny
And it’s part of the Capital City’s bowling folklore that the rink skipped by a young Robert Marshall and including RK Wright went on to win the British Isles title.
Last night’s finals of the E&L Championships at Craigentinny saw older brother Gordon join his two younger siblings to form the Slateford Triple – and they performed heroically to capture the title at the expense of a formidable Tanfield trio.
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Hide AdAndrew (47) – winner of the Edinburgh Open at Balgreen in 2001 – skipped Ronnie (43) and Gordon (51) to an 18-14 win over George Ganson, Andrew Sneddon and David Snodgrass, having made an explosive start to lead 9-2. Tanfield closed to six but had their revival cut short by a piledriver strike conversion from the Slateford skip that earned a three-shot reward to 12 and the Ramsays found themselves on easy street when leading 18-12 playing the last.
Tanfield suffered a second disappointment when their rink of Paul White, Peter Findlay Graeme Swan and Bob White crashed to a 20-11 defeat at the hands of Pilrig in the Fours.
Darren McKenny skipped Graeme Hislop Keith Mitchell and Gavin Smith to an opening run of 6, 2, 1, 3 to lead 12-0 after four ends and already it was all over for Tanfield.
James Hogg – soon to challenge for the British Isles Fours title – brought title glory to Carrick Knowe by skipping Raymond Smith to a 19-8 win over Gary Connelly and Jamie Gracie of Sighthill in the Pairs.
Sighthill made an encouraging start to lead 6-3 but the feel-good factor soon spread through the Carrick Knowe support as their duo stormed to 17 with a whirlwind run of 1, 2, 1, 4, 1, 5 and it was no contest after that.
The final of the Under-25 Singles for The James S Fleming Trophy lasted 23 ends with 19-year old Kerr McKail of Summerside capturing the title at the 21-16 expense of Colinton Mains’ Sean Alexander.
A hammer and tongs battle in the early stages saw peels being called at 12-12, but McKail transformed that picture with a full house count of four at the next end, and although menaced at 16-14 he pushed on to hit 21 six ends later.