Superb season so far for Garioch bowlers
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Garioch Indoor Bowling Club's Gents are having one of their best seasons this year having won all four of their matches to date, writes Mike Barron.
On Saturday, December 10 they meet Fraserburgh at home. They too have won all their games with a shot difference advantage of +96 over Garioch. A match to decide the leadership.
Garioch started with a very difficult match against Forfar, and the match was closer than the 13 shot difference.
Garioch collected the two points with a 93-80 win. Forfar since then have not won a match. Their only point was against Arbroath which was a draw.
Arbroath have always been a tough match, but on their own carpet. The Garioch were nine shots ahead at the ninth and continued their fine form to win 93-77.
Arbroath are now sitting bottom equal with no wins. Tipped to win the league their performances have been poor. They are still able to feature three current and past internationalists.
The carpet at Mintlaw is faster than at Inverurie, which is an advantage to the home side. The match was even throughout.
There was never more than a three-shot difference throughout. It was nail biting time at the final end, but the final Garioch rink scored and won with the score 77-76.
Stonehaven was the fourth match, and the home team never got going losing to Garioch 58-89.
Now comes that Fraserburgh fixture on Saturday, December 10. The final match in the first half of the season.
With the Senior Gents on paper the Garioch has some of the best players in the north-east, yet every year they fail to click as a unit.
In fairness they lost one by a shot and another by two. All five matches were lost.
Then came their last match when they beat Turriff 70-61. The skips were Norman Burnett, Gordon Sievewright and Bob Airth. Joining them was selector Bill Barclay whose play was sound.
The selectors are hopeful the team will do well against Buchan at home in their next fixture.
One of the reasons could be that a number of players, who have played in last seasons, have “retired” or dropped out for various reasons.
They are Bruce Middleton, John Nicol, Gordon Spence, Norman Hepburn, Alex McGauchey and former skips Bruce Middleton and Jim Bruce, along with Ian Beattie, a former internationalist who also represented Scotland in the International Hong Kong Pairs. A great loss to any team.
The first match was against Elgin. The home team were just ahead at the 11th end, but Elgin were always within striking distance. Garioch lost the last end, and the match 57-59.
Buchan, at home, were far too strong and won by 38 shots. All rinks were down. The score Buchan 83, Garioch 45.
Checking the past fixtures, Inverness have never won at Garioch, and it looked like the same again.
In the second half the game changed. Inverness were drawing well consistently and came back, winning by one shot. The final score was Garioch 73, Inverness 74.
The first three away matches were all defeats. The third was Fraserburgh, at the Broch.
Garioch will want to forget this performance. They were hammered by 47 shots. All rinks were down with the score finishing Fraserburgh 91, Garioch 44.
Elgin are joint leaders with Fraserburgh with five wins from six. Garioch fought hard but could not find the five shots needed to win the Elgin match. They lost 66-70.
Now came the Turriff fixture at home. Garioch from end 13 started to draw well in all rinks and won 70-61.
The skips were Norman Burnett, Gordon Sievewright, Bob Airth and it was interesting to find Bill Barclay in rink four.
There are still four matches to come before Christmas. Garioch meet Buchan home; Inverness away; Turriff away and finally Fraserburgh at home, who are expected to get two points on present form.
The next Fraserburgh fixture is against Elgin at home. A league leader will come from this match.
The Scottish Cup for Ladies starts on Saturday with the Garioch/Turriff combined team playing Stonehaven at Mintlaw.
It is a four-rink triples knock out. The selected team is as follows: (1) Angela Banks (Garioch), Ella Simpson (Turriff) and skip Frances Thomson (T); (2) Joan Western (G), Glenys Bolt (T), Carol Stuart (T); (3) Sheila Reidford (G), Lynn Ronald (T), Liz Fraser (T); (4) Lucy Willox, Margaret Christie and Ivy Ross (all Garioch).
There is an incentive to win, in that should Garioch/Turriff claim victory they meet Fraserburgh or Buchan at Inverurie in January.
