Bowling team returns home from Isle of Wight tournament with 25 medals

The Shetland indoor bowling team have returned home after winning 25 medals in last week’s inter-island competition in the Isle of Wight.

The 14 team members clinched the overall silver medals while in the individual competitions Rosie Jamieson won silver in the ladies’ singles, Anne Robertson and June Bain won bronze in the pairs and both fours teams won bronzes.

The event, held at the Community Club in Cowes, began last Monday with Shetland winning four out of the five matches on the opening day.

The men’s four of Ian Leiper, John Sharp, Gibbie Pottinger and skip John Sales beat the Isle of Wight in a match that was decided with the last bowl of the last end. The final result was a 21-6 win for Shetland.

The women’s four of Effie Watt, Marion Henry, Moira Stevenson and skip Margaret Burnett played the team from Ynys Mon and had a comfortable 34-5 win.

In the men’s singles Graham Jamieson beat Duncan MacLean of the Western Isles 21-7 while in the ladies’ singles Graham’s wife Rosie comfortably beat an Alderney player 21-5, having lost shots in only three of the 15 ends

The men’s pair of Alex Elphinstone and Ally Bain had a tough challenge against the Isle of Man and despite managing to draw level at 15-15 with three ends to play, the Isle of Man took all three to win 20-15.

On Tuesday the women’s pair of Anne and Bain got off to a slow start, scoring only one shot in the first six ends against a favoured Guernsey team. After 15 ends they were trailing 21-9 and they put in a strong challenge, scoring 11 shots in three ends to go into the last end one shot behind. However, Guernsey managed to take the last shot and win 21-20.

Rosie met Freda Swanney from Orkney in the women’s singles and was never behind and finished with a comfortable 21-10 win

On Wednesday Alex and Ally scored 19 shots in the first seven ends without reply and carried on to beat the Orkney pair 33- 8.

In the men’s singles Graham beat Steve Rossington of Ynys Mon 21-10 while the men’s four defeated the Western Isles 31-14.

In the women’s singles Rosie put up another strong show, beating her Ynys Mon opponent 21-6 and ensuring a place in the gold medal play-off on Friday.

In the ladies’ fours competition Shetland took on the strong Guernsey team and despite winning equal numbers of ends failed to score enough shots and were eventually beaten 16-11.

On Thursday Alex and Ally took on Alderney whose team included Richard Lovell, formerly a Shetland bowler, and put up a strong performance to win 18-12.

In the men’s singles Graham lost to the Guernsey player 13-6 which meant that he would now enter the bronze play-off on Friday.

The Shetland men’s four also met Guernsey and after failing to score in the first four ends were beaten 22-10. They also, therefore, were through to the bronze play-off.

Joining the  Shetland players through to play-offs were the women’s pair who beat Isle of Man by a single point to win 13-12 and the ladies’ four who beat Alderney 15-10.

With the first round competitions now complete both the Shetland women and men’s fours  played against teams from Isle of Man. The ladies won 30-19 and the men came out on top 25-20

The ladies’ pair won bronze beating Orkney 24-14 but the men’s pair lost to the Isle of Wight by a similar margin, going down 28-18.

The last match of the day saw Rosie pick up the silver medal in the ladies’ singles losing by only one shot to the Guernsey player.