Sport digest

FISHING SWANSWATER FISHERY

It was a sunny and breezy week with some showers and an occasional downpour. Water clarity remains excellent and the temperature has crept up to around 13oc.

The fish are well spread out around the main pond and are taking a wide variety of flies. In general, they were to be found around two to three feet down, although some were seen moving on or just under the surface.

Favourite fly patterns included Buzzer, Dancer, Egg, Diawl Bach, Cormorant, Dancer, Ally Mccoist, and the occasional dry fly. On the bait pond, spinning, green power bait and worms were all taking fish.

A couple of big Browns were landed this week along with some cracking Rainbows in around 5lb 8oz to 6lb 8oz. A decent number of Golds, including one at 5lb 8oz, Blues and Tigers also feature in the returns from all three ponds.

All the fish are in excellent condition and are giving anglers a great deal of good sport.

The fishery is open from 8am to 9pm every day except Thursday when it closes at 2.30pm.

Amongst those doing well on the fly were William Wells two for 9lb from the Millpond including 6lb 8oz Rainbow; Willie Macfadyen three for 13lb 6oz including 6lb 4oz Brown and a Gold; Barry Hamilton and grandson Kyle, four for 13lb 12oz including 6lb Rainbow, a Gold and two Tigers, plus a Blue and a Tiger catch and release (C&R); James Mcinnes three for 13lb 12oz including 6lb Rainbow and two Golds plus 10 C&R; David Alexander three for 12lb including 5lb 8oz Gold; Alastair Smith 5lb 8oz Rainbow; Ben Mcinnes two for 9lb 4oz including a Blue; Bruce Goodband four for 10lb 12oz including a Gold; Billy Weir three for 11lb 12oz including two Golds; Barry Lee three for 10lb 8oz including 4lb Rainbow from the Meadow Pond and a Gold; Cameron Smith three for 9lb 8oz including a Gold plus one C&R; Bud Robertson three for 9lb 8oz; Dean Abercrombie two for 7lb from the Meadow Pond; Danny Shelton three for 7lb 4oz including a Blue and a Tiger; Calen Mclachlan two for 7lb including 4lb 4oz Rainbow from the Meadow Pond and a Gold; Bobby Mcleod two for 6lb 12oz; Kevin Gold two for 6lb plus three C&R; Callum Mcmillan two for 6lb including a Gold and a Blue; Alec Campbell two for 5lb 8oz including a Gold, plus two C&R; Jamie Johnston four C&R; Gordon Mcgill two C&R including a Rainbow estimated at 10lb.

Some of the best bags landed on bait included Ellin Amelia two for 8lb including 5lb 8oz Brown; Stuart Wallace five for 15lb including 5lb Rainbow and three Golds; Andy Brown three for 12lb including 5lb

Rainbow and a Gold; Shane Landsborough two for 5lb 80z including a Gold and a Blue; Graham Phee three for 7lb; Stewart Fraser two for 4lb; Doug Shepherd three for 8lb 8oz; Andrew Williams two for 5lb 12oz.

CRICKET

Stirling County bounced back after last weekend’s league and cup defeats to register a comfortable 36-run win over Kelburne in the Western Union Premier League at New Williamfield on Saturday.

The victory was secured thanks to a 126-run partnership between skipper Matthew Tweedie and South African student Brandon Mcmullen which set County up to reach 255 for five off their allotted 50 overs.

They came together when Ant Dunford was dismissed with the score on 33 and when Tweedie departed for exactly 50, Mcmullen went on to score 101 in 104 balls to make up for missing out on his century in the Scottish Cup against Ayr when he fell six runs short.

Manus Sahare, Mikey Haysmith and Jonathan Bowes all scored late runs to boost County’s total.

In reply, Kelburne lost four wickets for 65 to put them on the back foot and although Ali Nasar held them up with 68, they fell short on 219 all out.

For Stirling, Ali Mubarak took two early wickets for 34 and Rukman Hewage took three for 41.

On Saturday, County are at home again, this time hosting Langside - match starting at noon. The 2nd XI had a free week on Saturday and meet Bees on Saturday.

WATER POLO

Stirling Water Polo’s boys teams have won their respective semi-finals to reach the Scottish Championship Finals.

The Under 16s defeated Menzieshill from Dundee. Stirling were always in control and able to pressurise their opponents into mistakes, consitently keeping the scoreboard ticking over and producing some quality goals on the road to a comfortable 29-12 win.

Stirling will go into the final as underdogs as they will be playing the current Scottish League champions Portobello.

Team: Jonah Bracciali, Murray Dickson, Jason Dickson, Hamish Robertson, Logan Vandermeulen, Fraser Vandermeulen, Adam Hill, Nathaniel Schiff-abels, Rafael Schiff-abels, Finlay Small, Peter Doig.

The Under 19s met Portobello and with Stirling already having won the Scottish League earlier this year and Portobello finishing runners up, this was anticipated to be a competitive match.

An early start of 9am showed for the Stirling boys when they started poorly and guilty of poor pass and shot selection.

However, towards the end of the first quarter, Stirling started to play better and worked some well taken goals, running out 21-9 winners. In the final, Stirling will face Menzieshill.

Team: Finn Lanyon, James Miller, Jamie Ralston, Kester Harris, Calum Addison, Ethan Aiken, Murray Dickson, James Clafferty, Grier Vandermeulen, Nathan Campbell, Logan Vandermeulen, Jason Dickson, Jonah Bracciali

Prior to Covid, Stirling Water Polo won both the Scottish Under 16 and Under 19 Championships in 2019 and nowhave the chance to repeat these victories in the first championships held since then.

Stirling girls will also be represented in the Under 19 final. Unfortunately, Stirling do not have enough girls to field age group teams at this time, and therefore some of the girls play for neighbouring clubs.

Georgia Ross and Lucy Macnair turned out for Dunfermline who won against Kirkintilloch whilst Holly Matheson played for Forth Valley in their win against Warrender in their respective semi-finals. The Stirling girls will now play against each other in the final.

All finals will be played at the Carnegie Centre in Dunfermline on June 12.