Bowling: Final day of Seniors set to get underway at Glenmavis

Sep 3 2009 by Our Correspondent, West Lothian Courier

THE final day’s play in the WLBA Seniors Open sponsored by Weslo Housing Management takes place at Glenmavis today (Thursday).

The semi-finals are expected to take place at 11.30am and the final at 2pm.

The line-up reads: Alan Chester of Mid Calder against Brian Holloran of Pumpherston; and Davy Clelland of Kinneil versus Ronnie Martin of Bellsburn.

The quarter-finals report is hot off the press from Broxburn on Tuesday afternoon and the star show came from Bruce Holloran with the defending champion continuing his strong defence of the £200 title, storming to a 21-6 win over Sam Gray of Bellsburn in 15-ends.

Alan Chester continued to enhance his profile with a 21-14 win over Jack Ramsay of Harthill having been more than hard held at 14-12 down but thrilling the watching crowd with an explosive run of 3, 1, 4, 1 to win in 19 ends.

Davy Clelland picked up from 4-4 to lead Jimmy Davidson of Kirkliston 13-8 and he remained in command to triumph 21-12 in 23-ends.

Ronnie Martin had the early measure of Davy Gracie of Whitburn to lead 10-4 and 16-9 but had sweat forming on his brow at 18-17 before adding a hat-trick of singles to clinch his place in the semis.

DICK Saunders of Bathgate is the 2009 Seniors Champion of Champion of West Lothian having etched his name on the coveted trophy with a nail-biting 21-20 win over Mike Ford of Kinneil in the final at Winchburgh.

The Seniors version of the C of C’s is run by Winchburgh BC and sponsored by local businesses so the organisers were delighted to attract an entry of 29 from the 35 member clubs of the WLBA.

The final was an epic 26-end affair that lasted a stamina-testing two hours 20 minutes and was full of incident, drama, and suspense with several twists and turns keeping the watching banking on tenterhooks as to the outcome.

Ford was the first to show with last season’s runner-up in the Weslo Seniors Open in good form to lead 7-0 after four ends and although Saunders eventually made an impression to close to 8-5 his rival answered with a 3 to 11.

Saunders still competes successfully in a wider circle of West Lothian bowls and showed typical bite with a six-end fight-back that yielded counts of 3, 1, 3, 1, 1, 1 that thrust him into a 15-11 lead.

But Ford’s spirit was far from broken and the Kinneil challenger produced a purple patch spell of 2, 3, (1), 1, 1 to cross 18-16 then he battled on to stand on the brink of victory at 20-18.

Saunders knew he now had no margin for error and the two-times Open champion produced a grandstand finish by conjuring up a magic 3 to pull a 21-20 victory out of the hat.

“I lost the 2007 final in a close finish so am delighted to be a winner on this occasion but it was a real yo-yo of a game and it could have gone either way,” summed up the newly crowned champion.

Quarter-final results, Dick Saunders 21 Charlie Scott (Ratho) 10; Mike Ford 21 Jim Gullane (Buchan Park) 11; Frank Barker (Oakbank) 21 Dan Miller (Springgrove) 12; Drew Reid (Winchburgh ) 21 Robert McIvor (Glenmavis) 13.

KIRKLISTON came from 13-6 down to pip Buchan Park 14-13 in Monday’s final of the Dickson Trophy at Bathgate High. Kinneil and Armadale were the losing semi-finalists.

ANGIE Uttley completed a successful defence of the West Lothian Ladies Classic Singles title when she made home green knowledge count at the expense of former champion Margaret Kain of Buchan Park in the final at Blackburn.

THE change of bowling seasons is set to get underway with the West Lothian Indoor announcing that all their leagues swing into action on the week commencing Monday September 7.

A SIZZLING climax to the BARBQ-sponsored WLBA Top Five Singles final at a rain swept Bankton Mains last Thursday night saw defending champions Kirkliston celebrate title victory, at the expense of Newbridge.

The sponsoring clubs of the BARBQ are Bankton Mains, Armadale, Ratho, Broxburn and Queensferry.

Conditions were of a drizzly nature and with two games finished, and the match score standing 1-1, the destination of the title was in a melting pot situation.

And a melting pot that was about to boil over as the remaining three games ended in an amazing blanket finish, making it a dramatic climax to the final.

Grant Logan, Steven Forrest, and Raymond Logan carried the KBC banner to glory while Thomas Mann and Alec Allan kept Newbridge bang in contention for would have been a fifth title win.

The scores in sequence were, Grant Logan 21 Blair Mackie 2; John Aitken 10 Thomas Mann 21; Steven Forrest 21 Ian Robertson 19; Neil Speirs 17 Alec Allan 21; Ray Logan 21 Paul Sweeney 17.

BRIAN Saunders has won the championship title at Bathgate High and takes his place in the Matt Purdie & Sons sponsored WLBA Champion of Champions event being played at Blackburn this weekend. The session times are 10am, 12pm, 2pm, and 4pm on Saturday then 11am, 1.30pm and 4pm on Sunday.

THE Roofline Scotland-sponsored £1000 Inter County Under 25 Round Robin challenge for the Calder Cup staged at Sighthill last Sunday saw national champions Edinburgh and Leith retain the title.

West Lothian had to settle for the runners-up spot, ahead of Midlothian and Border, despite making a great start to the campaign with a first session 87-80 win over E&L.

WL finished the day with an 84-77 win over Midlothian but a middle session setback saw them lose 81-74 to Border and in the final analysis they finished 52 shots behind an E&L team that beat Midlothian 85-74 and Border 121-66.