Long drive home for City Of Dundee bowlers after 131 shot defeat to Highland BA
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In the third week of the Andrew Hamilton Trophy, Highland BA players came together at Turriff for their first home game of the season after playing their first matches away at Carnoustie and Bankfoot.
Off the back of their win against Perthshire BA last Saturday, Highland BA was looking forward to taking on City of Dundee BA, who themselves had most recently achieved a win at home over Aberdeen And Kincardine BA.
Supporters could only hope that Highland BA would be able to do the green - double cut at 7am in anticipation of the day's proceedings - justice in their quest to climb up the North Section League table.
Unfortunately the previous evening Duncan Reid had fallen ill so this led to an instant recall to the team for home player, Finlay Gowan.
There was a good feeling amongst the Highland BA team as they made their way to the green, with hopes that they could come out of the blocks quicker than in the previous two games.
Trial ends over, with the big board scorers (Lynn Ronald and Carol Stuart) at the ready along with the six individual rink scorers sat with their “red” (home) and “blue” (away) laminated numbers from 1 to 8, the game was set to go.
At the completion of the first end the rink scorers had held up five red numbers totalling 10 shots with only one blue scoring two shots – the start Highland had been looking for.
Things were only going to get better as Stuart Cruickshank’s team managed to secure a count of seven shots on their second end and a big red seven was waved in the direction of the Lynn and Carol.
The remainder of the five rinks shared five shots with City of Dundee BA securing four of them to take their total to six whilst Highland BA with the aid of the seven on rink two raced up to 18.
The third end saw the sun dip behind the clouds and whilst it became overcast, Highland continued to shine brightly with the big board moving onto 26 -7.
It was not long before the sun reappeared and Highland BA’s lead continued to grow with the main board now showed 44 -10.
With 88 ends still to play four shots by Gavin Thom’s team saw the scoreboard move past 50 to 52 – 19.
As the game progressed towards its mid-point Highland BA’s lead was ever extending and at 10 ends across the green it was 88 – 27.
It was looking like Highland might hit 100 by halfway but this was not the case as the scoreboard read 95 – 28 with 63 ends still to play.
The milestone was reached with 58 ends to go at 102 – 28.
Highland players showed no sign of slacking despite their comfortable lead and the shots continued to pile onto the home side of the main scoreboard.
Whilst it was good for Highland to hold such a commanding lead, it can detract from the overall atmosphere however the spectators continued to enjoy the match, the weather (apart from a short period of drizzle) and thoughts of pandemic lockdowns receding into the past as life returns.
The score stood at 120 – 32 (49 ends) and over the next 10 ends Highland had added 20 shots, up to 140 whilst City Of Dundee BA’s score was still stuck on 32 (140 -32, with 39 ends still to play).
By the time all six rink games had reached 15 ends the big board read 138 – 40.
As the match moved onto the latter stages the shot difference continued to rise and there were no doubts where the two points would be going.
First to reach 21 ends was Stuart Cruickshank's team who had reached a final score of 28 -15 (against Andy Moir's team).
Rink six was next to finish with Kevin Beaton counting six on the last end to take his final score to 43 – 5 against Alan Crichton.
Gavin Thom’s game against John Watson had also looked likely to reach 40 when it stood at 31 – 3, but the City of Dundee team had a late resurgence and picked up nine shots to take them to 12 over ends 18 to 20, but Gavin’s rink picked up a single on the last end to finish at 32 -12.
Fourth off was Gowden Stewart and the second Highland team to finish a score of over 40 finishing at 41 – 6 against Calum Brunton.
With only two games still in progress the scoreboard read 194 – 62 (four ends to go).
As the last four ends were played out the two City of Dundee BA rinks still playing appeared determined not to let Highland BA get to 200, as they won the next three ends picking up six shots.
On rink four Mark Thurston playing Iain Bell were the penultimate game to complete with a final score of 32 – 13.
The final game on the green was Sandy Wyllie playing Brian Smith on rink five.
This was the most closely contested match all afternoon, with the home team in front at both five ends (6 – 2) and 10 ends ( 9 – 8 ) but falling behind 11 -16 after 15 ends.
Over the next five ends Sandy had regained the lead so that the score going into their final end was 20 - 17.
The match scoreboard read 196 – 68 as Sandy came to play the last bowl and the shot was against him.
A trail of the jack with his final delivery not only secured the shot but had made 3 shots, a final score in their game of 23 – 17 and an overall match score of 199-68, one of the highest in Highland BA history.
Next week sees Highland BA play Aberdeen And Kincardine BA at Lossiemouth, with Highland BA having moved up to second place in the North Section League table, due to a better shots difference.
