Armadale come close to title for West Lothian at national championships

Aug 5 2010 West Lothian Courier

ARMADALE, in the Senior Fours, came closest to capturing a title for the West Lothian banner in the national championships at Ayr Northfield last weekend, but skip Kenny Ferguson and his rink had to settle for the runners-up spot.

Queensferry also showed up well to reach the semi-final stage of the Fours while in these joint championships reigning ladies singles champion Lorraine Malloy of Deans (more next week) put up a stout defence of her title but bowed out in the last four.

Linlithgow in the Triples and Kinneil in the Fours also kept the ladies of West Lothian to the fore by reaching the semi-final stage of the championships and the exit of Linlithgow was agonisingly controversial.

The demise in the first round of Singles spearhead Thomas Mann of Newbridge was extremely disappointing for the WL support especially as he was looking OK at 10-7 up, but a barren spell that lasted six ends brought him under pressure at 17-10 down.

The exit door then confronted him at 20-11 down but that sparked an exciting rally to 18 before Mark Campbell of Croftfoot carded the winning single on the 27th end.

Liam Fairley of the Deans represented the WL banner in the Junior Singles and he showed up well in an opening 21-12 win over Richard Steele of Aberlour then made a steady start to lead Mark O'Hagan of Whitefield, 9-8 in the second round.

However, the loss of 1, 3, (1), 3 landed Fairley in bother at 15-10 down and now struggling to get back on terms he lost 21-13.

Day two at Ayr brought the opening round of the Pairs and the WL support suffered more misery with the 14-11 defeat of Derek Mairs and Graeme Archer of Uphall Station at the hands of Argyll Campbeltown.

Archer played a tremendous last-bowl killer at the penultimate end to hold a single but opposition skip Bobby Mathieson trumped it with a superb trail for 3 and a 14-10 lead going into the last.

More magic from Archer created the hint of chance to steal victory but with space to work in Mathieson killed all hopes with a confident last-bowl draw.

These dark clouds for WL did have a silver lining though with Armadale in particular bringing a strong ray of sunshine with their sterling efforts in the Senior Fours.

Kenny Ferguson and his rink of Frank Weir, Alex Wark and Billy Gardner hit the ground running to card a 4 on the first end and also included a 5 and a 6 as they stormed to a 24-9 win over Milton of Campsie.

Glengowan and former international star Willie Harkness promised to be tough opposition in the second round and they led 9-3 before Ferguson and Co sparked into life with a run of 1, 4, 3, then accelerated to a 17-12 victory.

Armadale were then stirred but obviously not shaken when trailing Marchmount 11-5 in the third round as Ferguson and Co frothed up their challenge with a fine 5, 1, 1, 2 response to cross 14-11 then win 14-13.

The presence of the Dale rink in the semi-finals set the pulse rates racing and a flying start saw them lead Polmaise 12-2 after nine ends and the addition of a mighty 5 to go 17-3 up saw them win 21-5.

The final against near neighbours Shotts Iron Works brought early grief with Ferguson and Co conceding 7 shots at the second end and this time there was no way back and they sportingly acknowledged a 19-9 defeat.

Queensferry's Stephen King Alan Brown Iain McLean and Alan Atkinson walked over in round one then opening with a 5 went on to beat Kelvindale 18-12 followed by a battling 17-16 win over Tanfield.

The Ferry Lads met Rock of Dumbarton in the semis but suffering lean times they made a 22-8 exit.

Linlithgow opened with a 15-10 win over Easthouses in the Triples having led 15-3 then in a rollercoaster second-round encounter Gary Smith went on to skip Willie Scott and Colin Stein to a nail biting 19-18 win over Houldsworth.

Smith and Co lost a 7 at the 4th end then trailed 16-7 but staged a 3, 1, 2, 3, 3, recovery to cross 19-16 playing the last against Andy McIntyre.

Linlithgow went on to lead Crookston 14-9 in round three but the loss of a 7 proved catastrophic as they slipped to an 18-16 defeat.

Irishman Jonathon Ross of Priorscroft pipped Robert Marshall of Slateford 21-20 in the final of the Singles while an outstanding Kevin Anderson of Dumbarton beat Gary Muir of Hillside 21-11 to land the Junior Singles title. Anchor beat Blantyre in the Pairs final and Tanfield beat Raploch in the Triples while Houldsworth with Ian Campbell at skip won the Fours.