Young Keith bowling trio triumph in Scottish Young Bowlers Association finals at Newbridge Bowling Club in Edinburgh, representing Highland Bowling Association on the national stage
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THREE rising bowling stars from have been crowned Scottish champions, representing the Highlands on the national green.
Skip David Maver and siblings Ashleigh and Ross Dalgarno swept aside the opposition at Newbridge Bowling Club in Edinburgh to claim glory at the Scottish Young Bowlers Association national finals day.
The Keith triple won six games and lost just once on their way to an impressive triumph.
Representing Highland Bowling Association under-17s, they beat Ayrshire South 8-3, Edinburgh West 7-2, Glasgow South 4-3 and West Lothian 12-1 before losing 10-3 to Greater Glasgow in their final group game with their place in the semis almost guaranteed.
In the last four, the Keith kids faced a repeat of their section tie against Greater Glasgow, their only conquerors who had won convincingly only minutes earlier.
In a close and nervy game, the teams exchanged twos in the opening two ends before the Glaswegians picked up a shot to lead going into the final two ends of the 40-minute match.
This time Keith’s finest picked up their game to win shot in both ends and squeeze into the final by a 4-3 margin.
Midlothian defeated West Fife in the other semi final to make themselves Highland’s only remaining rivals for the silverware.
The home unit started better and were lying five shots when Maver lined up his final bowl knowing his team was staring a potentially heavy deficit in the face.
His previous two running bowls narrowly missed, so he changed tactics for his final effort with a forehand draw which swung perfectly in between the closest bowl and the jack, just falling out at the last second, but crucially limiting the damage to just one shot instead of five.
It proved to be a game changer with Midlothian unable to match the high quality shots of the Keith trio over the next few ends.
A single levelled things up, followed by a devastating three and four to push Highland 8-1 ahead and needing to only avoid disaster over the final two ends.
The Keith three duly did this, only losing two more shots and cementing an overall 9-3 victory to ensure that the shield was heading north.
“We can’t speak highly enough of how the Keith triple went about their business today and no one in the healthy crowd could deny that they deserved their win,” said an HBA spokesperson.
“Massive congratulations to the three of you once again, and enjoy calling yourselves Scottish champions.”
