Hamilton Trophy – 01/06/2013

Stewartry 123 v 96 Wigtownshire

Rinks scores

S.Richardson 19  v25  A. Cairney, S. McCubbin 22 v 13 A. Higgins,

S. Davies 17 v 19 D. Kiltie(Jnr) , A. Davies 16 v 18 A. Hainey,

B. McClune 24 v 11 A. McClurg, G. Maxwell 25 v10  K. Cairney.

On a really warm and sunny afternoon, to start with at least, the annual  local match between the 2 South West counties took place at Dalbeattie. The visitors arrived on the back of a victory against current holders Lanarkshire and started warm favourites against a Stewartry team who had lost 3 previous games.

However this game reminds how bowls is a great sport in which everything is on the day. Stewartry started really well and they raced into a 30 shot lead after only 7 ends. Stewartry held that lead, which fluctuated between 20 and 30 up until 12 end mark, when rain came on for around 20 minutes. After the rain cleared and sun came back out Wigtownshire came back into the game a bit and indeed for a 5 minute spell it looked as though deficit had been cut to to single figures. However this was just big Hamish counting the Dalry way and in fact 10 shots were missing from Stewartry total.

This just gave Stewartry the final push they needed and in a very quiet game apart from someone on Rink 1(Natch YES SIR Maxwell) the game ended with a well deserved and comfortable Stewartry win. The 27 shot winning margin also wiped out their deficit from first 3 games and it shows how tight margins have cost us so dearly this season.

Anyway now to next week and champions Lanarkshire at Quarter, they responded well to their defeat with a good win against Dumfriesshire so we will need to raise our game again – Well Done Stewartry. 

Hughie