Inverurie Bowling Club beat Rothienorman to win title
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Inverurie won the A & K 2023 5 Singles Bowling Trophy by defeating Rothienorman, writes Mike Barron.
They will now travel to face Melrose in early August in the Scottish knockout.
With a winning score of 4-1 in the area final it would appear that Inverurie had an easy win over Rothienorman, but this was far from the case.
The final scores were:
Inverurie Rothienorman
Barry Sangster 21 Ian Moir 7
Jason Banks 21 Gordon Cruickshank 12
Colin Banks 21 James Harper 16
Gary Macdonald 14 Norman Burnett 21
Stuart Buist 21 Mark Campbell 19
The Buist v Campbell match was moving comfortably to a win for Campbell (Rothie) at 19-14, but a back spasm meant he could hardly bend to deliver his bowls, and he lost 3 and then 4 shots at the next two ends to lose 21-19.
Norman Burnett (Rothie) was never behind against Gary MacDonald. He was 11-6 up at 10th end and never looked back. His drawing was outstanding throughout with Macdonald always trying to catch up.
Colin Banks (Inverurie) had a poor start being 1-6 down against the steady James Harper, a fellow A & K skip. The game from end 8 was Colin’s. He overtook Harper, and just kept his lead to win 21-16. The result could have gone either way.
Jason Banks went into overdrive immediately and went to 9-1. He seemed to be enjoying his match, and while Gordon Cruickshank came back in the middle of the game he was never nearer than 8 shots throughout.
Barry Sangster (Inverurie) was expected to have a tough match but his demolition of Ian Moir was an example of some fine drawing. From 7-4 down Moir only scored another 3 shots. A fine 21-7 win for Sangster.
Overall it was the more experienced Inverurie five who, when down, drew either to score or reduce the count for a fine win.
