BOBBY’S WEELKLY REPORT 10th NOVEMBER 2008

This Thursday sees the women play their second round matches in the Super League. Bowhill Club are at home to the CISWO, Bowhill Railway Tavern’s A team have a home tie against Station Hotel (Thornton), while their B team are on the road with an away fixture against East Neuk.

The Saturday before last Fife’s Inter County team travelled to Arbroath to meet Angus in their second match of the season and results saw Fife regain their form of recent years with an excellent overall performance to pull themselves back into contention in all divisions following results from the first round.

The first match on was the women’s B and they kept their unbeaten record going with a well fought 2-2 draw. Susan McRae took the first set for Fife with a 2-1 win with 12.94 before Agnes Gallagher (10.43) lost her deciding leg to Heather Thomson to make it 1-1. Izzy Brannan (14.11) won 2-0 to put Fife ahead, only for Louise Park (12.97) to lose by the same score against Elaine Shepherd to tie the match and give both teams a share of the spoils.

Next up was the men’s B and they overturned their 5-1 defeat by winning 5-1 this time out. Colin Hogg (20.56) lost 3-1 in the first set to Lee MacPherson, but wins from Kevin Feeley (3-1 with 19.43), Colin Miller, winning 3-0 in his debut match with 23.12, followed up by 3-1 wins for Colin McClements (22.32), Allan Masson (16.77) and Scott Carstairs gave Fife a fine 5-1 win.

The women’s A team were next up and Margaret Hatton got the ball rolling for the visitors winning 3-2 with 19.02. Brenda Hunter and Morag Small won without the loss of a leg with 15.34 and 15.03 respectively, before Pearl Scott won a deciding fifth leg to give Fife the win they deserved with 12.24 to put the Fifer’s 4-0 ahead. The fifth set was won by Margaret Finlayson who won 3-0 and team manager Moira Murray concluded the rout with a 3-1 win for 9.45 to give the Fife ladies an excellent 6-0 victory. Nobody was more delighted than Margaret Finlayson though following her jig on the stage after scoring her first ever 180 in the third leg of her win.

The men’s A match was the last of the day and it didn’t look good for Fife as they went 2-0 down after Scott Winder beat Jock Martin 3-1 (23.46) and Andrew Stott won 3-2 against Rab Shaw (21.15). Fife dug deep though and the next three sets all went their way following 3-0 wins from Ian Cochrane (25.05), Colin Hepplewhite (24.24), and Stuart Grubb (27.83). Rab Watson made his A team debut and was certainly up for it as he won 3-2 with an average of 28.74, then Stewart Rattray won 3-0 with 30.67 before John Walker came through a scrappy set to win 3-2 with 19.17 to put Fife 6-2 ahead. Angus brought one back though in the ninth set after Math Wilson (23.75) was taken all the way only to lose out in the deciding leg against Shaun Berrie. Sets ten, eleven and twelve all went the way of the visiting Fife throwers with Mark Thomson winning 3-0 with 24.64, Gordon Donnelly winning 3-2 with 21.70 and in the final set of the day, Neil Brunton won 3-1 with 25.41.

Player of the matches were all Fifers; Women’s B – Izzy Brannan 14.11; Men’s B – Scott Carstairs 25.70; Women’s A – Margaret Hatton 19.02; and Stewart Rattray 30.67.

There were two ton plus checkouts on the day; 116 by Mark Thomson (F) and 104 by Jamie Cooper (A), while players to score maximums were; Margaret Finlayson (F), Rab Shaw (F), Stuart Grubb (F), Bob Dall (A), Rab Watson (F) x2, John Walker (F), Math Wilson (F), Mark Thomson (F), and Neil Brunton (F).

Bobby Adamson