Bowlers claim first Forres title of season
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Forres Bowling Club's 2018 men's champion, John Matthews, and Alan Gardner have won the first trophy of the season, the 2-Bowl pairs.
They were unbeaten in their final half dozen sets, having lost just three of their fourteen played in the round robin tournament. This was Alan's second trophy win at the club, despite him just starting his second season.
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After an initial set defeat, Brian Green won his next five in a row. A mixed second half of the tournament left him in second place.
Paul Coutts won his final seven sets, having claimed victory in just two of his first seven.
Davie Petrie skipped the third pair to finish on 18 points, but his tally of shots scored left him in fourth place.
Scores: J Matthews 21 pts, 60 shots; B Green 18 pts, 61 shots; P Coutts 18 pts, 55 shots; D Petrie 18 pts, 44 shots; D Dobbs 17 pts, 48 shots; A Porter 16 pts, 60 shots; L Morris 15 pts, 63 shots; S Gill 15 pts, 52 shots; H Sutherland 15 pts, 43 shots; E Cowie 14 pts, 47 shots; A Grant 12 pts, 48 shots; L Coutts 12 pts, 45 shots; M McCarthy 9 pts, 31 shots; C Watt 6 pts, 31 shots; R Anderson 4 pts, 30 shots.
Kath Todd won her second hat night in a row last Monday night as she, Ann Grant and Sandy Burgess won the first official hat night of the season in the four month quest to capture the Scott Cup. The trio were in sparkling form, dropping just two single shots to Brian Caldwell.
After an even initial seven ends, Stuart Robertson hit a six to put daylight between him and John Matthews. This started a good run of scoring for Robertson before Matthews took the final two ends.
Dean Dobbs suffered a poor start against Alex Porter, losing the first five ends. However he won seven of the remaining eleven ends to restrict Porter's score.
In a match that swung one way then the other, Brian Riddell led Louise Morris 12-7 with five to play. Morris won that five ends, picking up a handful of shots at the last.
Little separated Steve Gill and Derek Sobey all night. Steve won the final three ends for a two shot victory.
In a tale of two halves, John Ross trailed Harry Sutherland 11-6 at the halfway point before doing enough in the second half to draw.
Scores: A Burgess 32, B Caldwell 2; S Robertson 24, J Matthews 12; A Porter 19, D Dobbs 9; L Morris 19, B Riddell 12; Steve Gill 12, D Sobey 10; John Ross 15, H Sutherland 15.
Thursday's moving hat-night was won by Ray Boyd, Ed Harris and Dean Dobbs. The trio kept on the move, winning three and drawing one of their four sets.
Harry Sutherland recovered well after losing his first set. He won the other three.
Jim Ross was 12-1 up after seven ends, but lost multiple shots in alternate ends thereafter.
Although he started badly, Brian Riddell won the majority of the ends that he played.
Losing a shot at the final end consigned Derek Sobey to a negative final score.
Although he started with a four, Alex Porter had a miserable evening stuck on Rink 2. A poor final set left John Matthews in the red while Brian Caldwell's recent bad luck continued as he spent the whole evening on Rink 4.
Scores: D Dobbs 9 up; H Sutherland 7 up; Jim Ross 5 up; B Riddell 2 up; D Sobey 1 down; A Porter 4 down; J Matthews 4 down; B Caldwell 14 down.
Forres got off to a good start in the over-55s league by winning 4-2 away at Moray.
Stars of the show were Marjory McCarthy and Brian Caldwell. They led their hosts 11-1 after seven ends, and went on to win 21-6. A handful of shots at the last put the icing on the cake.
Elma McInnes and Davie Petrie recovered from trailing 9-4 after eight ends to record a victory half a dozen ends later.
Chris Stoves and Charlie Watt had a miserable afternoon, losing a seven on their way to a heavy defeat.
Forres travel to Cooper Park next Tuesday.
Lindsey Petrie helped the Grampian under-25s team defeat Bon Accord 156 – 82 on Sunday.
The Bowls Scotland regional national qualifiers begin tomorrow night. In these initial ties, Forres will be represented by Brian Green and Derek Sobey in the men's pairs, and Sandy Burgess, Dean Dobbs and John Ross in the men's triples.
John Matthews will lead the team as Forres host Portsoy on Friday night in a HBA top ten preliminary round tie.
Forres play Hopeman next Monday in their second match in the Morayshire ladies' triples league.
A strong entry to the David Petrie (Handyman) sponsored Forres open pairs will ensure that St Catherine's Road is a busy place this weekend.
