Rampant Scots team does grieving Burnett proud

Arbroath’s Commonwealth Games gold medallist Darren Burnett withdrew from the Scottish team because of a family bereavement – but Scotland were still able to power to a fantastic win over England in a men’s Test Match at the New Earswick Club in York.

When he collected the David Bryant Trophy, team captain Alex Marshall dedicated Scotland’s win to Burnett’s mother-in-law Helen Oswald, the Angus Provost who sadly passed away recently.

Although the final score in a best-of-11 match encounter was 6-5, the six-man Scottish team were home and dry 6-2 after the eight game, and it was only a late flurry of three singles defeats on the trot that made the score respectable for the host country.

Scotland won both triples, and looked to be heading for an easy victory when Paul Foster and Alex Marshall won the first pairs clash, but England replied with two pairs wins to make the overnight score 3-2 after the team events, and with six singles matches to play.

English hopes were dashed when Stewart Anderson, Alex Marshall and Ronnie Duncan strung together three successive victories to see Scotland home, and the three defeats – for Foster, Colin Walker and Scott Kennedy, deputising for Burnett – were of academic interest only. This was the last of a series of Test Matches that brought bowls back to ITV, more than 30 years after the Granada Superbowl was ditched.