County bowlers confident of success in cup contest
East Lothian hit the campaign trail for the Hamilton Trophy in the Scottish Counties Championship on Saturday May 9 when they welcome arch rivals Edinburgh & Leith to EL Co-op BC in Tranent for the opening match in the East qualifying section (2pm start).
Expectations of another successful campaign are again high but some familiar names will be missing from the side recently announced by the selectors.
Newly-crowned East Lothian indoor singles champion Willie Wood MBE is currently on international duty for Scotland in South Africa playing in the Atlantic Rim tournament and he will miss the opening couple of matches.
The Glen brothers, Steven and Colin, have confirmed they cannot commit their services for the 2009 campaign as they are no longer members of an East Lothian bowling club but better news for the garden county selectors is the talented pairing of Craig Valentine (Port Seton) and Jamie Higgins (Tranent) are available again after a self-imposed exile.
Campaign
World stage icon Alex 'Tattie' Marshall forms the backbone of the EL attack along with fellow skips Alister Kennedy, Struan Robertson, Steven Morgan, Derek Oliver and Craig Valentine.
Ormiston's Gary Murray will wear the captain's armband for a second successive campaign.
The full team: G Murray (Orm) capt, D Sked (W/B), C Bonner (Hadd), A Marshall MBE (Giff) skip; G Thomson (E/L), B Dunleavey (Aber), R Black (E/L), A Kennedy (W/B) skip; C Fallen (ELCO), S Johnston (Orm), Dav Oliver (C&PS), S Robertson (W/B) skip; B Bird (C/Park), J Gordon (Tra), B Young (C/Park), S Morgan (C&PS) skip; M Taylor (ELCO), R Branley (C&PS), J Higgins (Tra), Dek Oliver (C&PS) skip; J Blair (Hadd), N Cochrane (Tra), S A Thomson (C/Park), C Valentine (C&PS) skip.
The chief highlight from Division 2 saw Gifford continue their excellent start to score a 7-1 home success over Macmerry while ex-Elphinstone star Norrie Cochrane was in inspiring form for his new club Tranent A as they celebrated an 8-0 success at Ormiston. Dunbar edged a 5-3 thriller at home against Prestongrange while Winton and Cockburnspath settled for a 4-4 share of the spoils.
In tonight’s (Friday) action match of the night in Division 1 takes place at Polson Park where there is the small matter of a ‘belters’ derby between Tranent and EL Co-op. Tranent’s Kenny ‘Bronson’ McShane will make his home debut following his return to his native club after a spell playing at Edinburgh club Slateford. Defending champions East Linton will be without influential player and top skip Richard Black as they play host to Castlepark. Haddington welcome back county star Colin Bonner back into there first team line-up as they entertain Port Seton while West Barns will be favourites to land the spoils when they have home advantage over Elphinstone.
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Weather for Musselburgh
Sunday 05 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 2 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: South west
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Cloudy
Temperature: -0 C to 6 C
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