The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Arbroath complete long trek with ‘Holy Grail’
BOWLs: Victory over Castle Douglas seals Top 10 title for Angus club
Arbroath Bowling Club achieved the “Holy Grail” in team bowls when they won the Scottish Inter-County Top 10 championships.
A comfortable 6-2 victory over Castle Douglas in the final completed a journey that had begun almost a year ago when 1,000 clubs played in each of the 32 districts’ own Top 10 contest.
Club president Gary Milne said: “This was an absolutely magnificent run which ultimately ended with us winning the trophy – a once in a lifetime achievement, and one which saw Arbroath represent Angus county with pride.
“I would like to thank the supporters who travelled to all the games, backing the players all the way and the committee for all of their hard work during the campaign.”
Having won the Angus Top 10 last year, the Dishlandhill club’s journey to joy began with an away tie against Dalmuir in Dunbartonshire.
The gamed ended 4-4, but Arbroath went through on shots 70-62.
They then met Adrian BC, representing Stirling County. Once again, they shared the spoils 4-4, but Hill again triumphed on shots 61-55.
Arbroath headed north in the quarterfinals to play Aberdeen and Kincardineshire and drew 4-4 again, winning the tie by 10 shots.
In the last four, the Hill demolished Westhill’s Bon Accord 8-0 to reach the final.
Darren Burnett took as much pleasure in helping his local club to the historic win as he did in landing his second Commonwealth title in Australia in April.
“It’s all very well competing on the world stage, but that sometimes means you don’t have time to play for your local club,” said the 42-year-old policeman.
“It was nice to be able to help them win this, especially as nobody in the Tayside area had won it for the best part of 30 years.
“I needed to take some time out after the Commonwealths because that was my fifth Games for Scotland, but I feel fresh again after taking some down time.
“We played five games in five weeks, beating Westhill in the semis and Castle Douglas in the final. It was great to win it.”
The successful team was: singles – M Anderson; pairs – G Swankie and D Burnett; triples – D Swankie, T Dickson and N Herron; and fours – G Stott, G Mathieson, D Strachan and M Stewart.
D Henderson and P Carnegie also played their part representing the team in earlier rounds.