The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Thomson hits major milestone
A NDY THOMSON, who was born in St A ndrews 58 years ago, reached a remarkable personal milestone yesterday, when he captained England to victory over Ireland in the men’s international series at the Stanley club in County Durham.
It was the Anglo-Scot’s 100th international appearance for England. A n astonishing statistic, given the fact that bowlers can earn only three caps every year and one which outstrips the achievements of the likes of David Bryant and Tony Allcock.
The day started badly with news that two players — Scotland’s Robert Grant and Ian Henderson, from Wales — had been sent home in disgrace for unspecified breaches of their national associations’ codes of conduct.
There was, apparently, no connection between the misdemeanours that the two offenders were alleged to have committed but, curiously, they were both skips and had been drawn to play against each in the opening match of the series.
On the subject of Grant’s removal from the Scottish team, SIBA secretary Gordon Woods would merely confirm that it followed “an incident in Durham City on Wednesday evening” and that it was “a clear breach of the SIBA code of conduct”.
Meanwhile, on the green, A uchinleck’s Stewart A nderson replaced Grant as skip on rink 1, and Nigel Leigh stepped in to replace Henderson, who had helped three clubmates win the British Isles men’s fours title on Wednesday.
A nderson came out on top, 24-10, as Scotland achieved a more than satisfactory 119-91 win over Wales. A lex Marshall beat young Ross Owen 23-17, Colin Walker, with old hand Willie Wood at second, won 19-9 and Derek Oliver edged home 20-15.
A rbroath’s Darren Burnett lost his number three A nderson in the reshuffle and lined up with Graham Robertson as his third man. They lost by two shots, 15-13, while the Scottish rink skipped by Neil Speirs dropped four shots on the last end to lose 20-15.
Burnett’s brother Ryan was not called off the reserve bench but his services are likely to be needed before the end of the series.