Tough run of results for Garioch bowler Carla Banks
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Garioch bowler Carla Banks, a favourite for the Scottish Junior Singles title, was knocked out by Lucy Hogg of East Lothian, writes Mike Barron.
She lost the national junior match against Hogg 16-21.
She was defeated again in round one of the Scottish Open Singles by Christine McLennan of Blantyre, the club’s second entry.
Next came the Scottish Pairs and Carla and mother Angela were beaten in the first round.
This was a blow to Carla’s ambition to continue to stay in the top Scottish group of bowlers.
Her mother Angela was also in the Scottish Open Singles and beat last year’s Scottish triples winner, Kim Watt of Stonehaven, in a thriller.
The match could have went either way but the Garioch player kept her nerve and got over the line 21-20.
Next came Lauren Allardyce of Blantyre, their number one entry, and she wore down Angela, who was drawing well, but found her opposition too strong on the day. She lost 14-21.
There were poor performances from the north, with all four in the semi-finals coming from the central belt.
The Two Bowl Pairs, a competition which they have done well in the past, saw Angela and Carla Banks on their way to win another title, but they came up against Stonehaven’s Sheila Bremner and Scottish triple title winner Catherine McIntosh who won the extra ends in the quarter-final.
The Banks pair had a tough series of matches but were playing well. In the first round they beat by Buchan 2-0. Next came Forfar and they again won 2-0.
Fraserburgh likewise found the Banks too strong and also lost 2-0.
Next came the Scottish Pairs and while the match was close last weekend, they lost 18-21 to arch rivals Margaret Durward and Anne Gauld.
It could have been so different as at the 17th end the score was 17-17. The Aberdeen pair were 20-18 up at the 20th. Fight as they did Carla and Angela lost another single at the final end to lose by three shots.
The Garioch’s Scottish Triples team have to wait until December 17 to compete next, and again Angela and Carla have the very promising Lucy Willox playing with them.
The final Scottish competition is the Fours, which is in January, and the Garioch triples have Linda Harper joining them.
The Garioch and Turriff clubs' women numbers have dropped, and rather than pulling out they joined forces and won the North Division 1. They were promoted to the North Premier League and they are finding things tough.
Elgin are top, having won all three matches in the first half of the season.
Garioch/Turriff are like the other two sides, having won but one match each. It will be a hard fight to save themselves from relegation.
On January 7 they meet Fraserburgh, whom they beat 85-64 at home, but this fixture is away. Arbroath comes next away and this was their last game at home, which they won 62-43.
Last weekend’s match was against Elgin and they showed why they are top of the league. They beat Garioch/Turriff 76-34 and they were playing in Inverurie.
All three rinks lost heavily. Liz Fraser lost 14-25, Carol Stewart 10-29 and Carla Banks 10-22. At the halfway stage Garioch knew they were up against it as they were 16 shots down and they were playing on their own carpet.
Unless the team win one of their first two fixtures in 2023 they will be facing relegation, as their last match is away to Elgin.
