Garioch bowlers struggle in North Scottish competition while Turriff reach semi-final
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Garioch Indoor Bowling Club hosted the North Scottish Ladies Triples Playdowns last weekend, writes Mike Barron.
The home side had a bye to the first round, and Garioch with Sheila Reidford, Joan Western and Linda Harper had a tough fight against Fraserburgh.
The Broch side were 8-7 up at the ninth end, 12-12 at the 13th and with some fine bowling at the final ends Garioch won 17-15.
The second round was a different proposition, as they met Arbroath, who were playing well in the early ends.
At the 10th end Garioch were down 9-14 and never scored another shot, losing 9-24.
Hot favourites were the Scottish Triples champions of last year, but they failed to get past the first round against Turriff by 23-14.
The Turriff trio playing were Lynn Ronald, Carol Stewart and Elizabeth Fraser, who also play as part of the Garioch/Turriff combined league team.
The match was no fluke as Turriff were up 11-8 at the eighth, 17-13 at the 13th and finished nine shots up. They went on to beat Dundee and then met Arbroath in the quarter-final.
It was an even match at the start. It was 6-6 at sixth end and the match was very close until the last end, when Turriff drew a superb last bowl to win 15-14.
They are now Scottish semi-finalists playing next month for the title.
The Garioch men’s team were at Turriff, and after seven ends the trio of Colin Banks, Alan Rough and Lee Collins found themselves 1-10 down against a strong Arbroath team.
It got no better from then, as they were 4-10 down at the 10th, 5-17 at the 12th and finished 7-23. The comment of a Garioch spectator was “they never got going”.
Arbroath got to the quarter-final but were beaten by Elgin 16-12, despite having one of Scotland’s top players, Mike Stepney, missing. Elgin are now into the Scottish semi-final next month.
Meanwhile, playing in the world’s largest prize money tournament in Australia, with a prize of more than £300,000, Carla Banks with brother Jason and Drew McLauchlin of Blantyre did not play as well as they had hoped.
The greens were much faster and they found it difficult in their early matches. Playing against most of the top players in the world any mistake or loose bowl was punished.
The contest was unique in that there were points per player at every end, for touchers and other rewards in their five-end matches.
Despite winning a few matches they did not qualify for the playdowns, as this was restricted to the top six of 13 trios.
The trio will have learned from the experience and be better prepared for a repeat competition next year.
They had a tough time getting to Melbourne with cancelled planes, departure times changed and lost luggage, but they did have a few days to get over jet lag and practice.
They played on some very well maintained greens and the televised rink was roofed.
Jason has again been selected for the home internationals in midwinter, which take place at Abbeyview Bowling Club in Fife this year. His selection was made despite him missing the trials as he was in Australia.
Others selected from the north-east are Jak Miller (Aberdeen), Bradley Buchan (Fraserburgh) and Mike Stepney (Elgin), the best singles player in Scotland just now. Jason is now over 25, so will not feature in the under 25 internationals this year.
It has not been a good season for Carla Banks in the Scottish competitions, losing out in the singles and pairs.
A further disappointment is she has not being selected for the ladies home internationals and she is only reserve for the under 25s internationals.
She was unable to appear at the trials being in Australia and the selectors decided to leave her out.
Another reason claimed for her lack of selection is based on last year, when she had to pull out at the last moment for the under 25s, and then again for the full internationals being very unwell.
She was first capped in 2013 when she was 14 years of age. She has played in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, and performed well.
Gaining her last cap, she was a skip and captain of the under 25 team.
