European Championships success for Aberdeenshire bowlers
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The bowls European Championships had two local players, Jason Banks (Inverurie) and Connor Milne (Tarves), in the Scottish men’s team of five, writes Mike Barron.
Scotland took gold, silver, and two bronze medals over the week’s play. A medal in all four competitions.
Banks won gold and bronze, while Milne won silver and the same gold.
The format was similar to the Commonwealth Games, where from the pool there were first pairs and triples in a round robin league, with singles and fours following, with the top two of each section playing for the medals.
Both Banks and Milne were in the Fours, and they came away with the gold. They had six games in the round robin league, and then a knock out semi-final.
They were undefeated in the league scoring five wins and a draw. They beat Guernsey 16-12, Netherlands 15-12, France 18-14, Hungary 24-7 and Spain 26-9. They had an exciting match with Ireland, finishing in a draw 14-14.
Then came the semi-final, and it took an extra end to beat Wales 13-12. In the final they defeated England again in a close match 14-12.
Banks was in the pairs along with Matt McIntosh, and in a seven-country league, they beat Jersey 19-15, Sweden 23-19, Hungary 31-6, France 27-12, Israel 22-5, and Netherlands 22-9, but lost narrowly to Ireland in their second match going down 16-20.
Ireland went through to the semi-final to play runner up in section B and they lost to Guernsey 12-13. With England beating Scotland in their semi-final 19-11, the Scots then had to meet Ireland again, this time for the bronze medal. Scotland felt they had a good chance, as they had better form with each successful league match.
Ireland had a good first end, but then Jason Banks was drawing some very fine bowls, and the few times Ireland had shot, McIntosh, with some fine backhand drawing, gave the Scots shots.
Scoring continued end after end, and having suffered their only defeat in the league to Ireland, it was sweet revenge, winning by the massive score of 25-4, with a couple of ends to play to win the bronze medal.
England got the pairs gold medal beating Guernsey 21-19.
Milne, the ex-Garioch indoor player, plays out of Tarves outdoor club. He already had a silver medal from a previous European championship, had to settle for the same medal again in the triples.
Scotland in the league beat Netherlands 16-14, Guernsey 16-11, Isle of Man 21-11, Spain 17-14, Switzerland 27-10, Czech Republic 30-13 but lost to England 19-22.
The semi-final threw up an unexpected result, with England surprisingly losing to Ireland 13-16, and Scotland beat Israel 18-15.
In the gold medal match, Scotland from the mid point were behind, and with the superior drawing of Ireland, the Scots lost 12-19.
The final positions of the triples were gold to Ireland, silver to Scotland and bronze to Israel, who surprisingly beat England 23-16.
Scotland in the singles lost to Ireland for a final place 21-17, but played well, and took the bronze award beating the favourites England 13-12.
