Victory at Forres Bowling Club for holder Alan Gardner and prolific winner Paul Coutts
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FORRES Bowling Club’s two bowl pairs trophy has been retained by Alan Gardner, two years after he last lifted the silverware.
In his first outing of the season, Gardner was skipped by the reigning men’s champion, Paul Coutts, whose own record is impressive after winning six of the last nine competitions he has taken part in.
The pair won all but one of the sets which they played in the round robin tournament on Sunday. Unfortunately for Paul, his daughter Alana and Harry Sutherland were the team that thrashed them 9-3 in the other set.
Henry Davidson and Alex Porter finished runners-up. After a mixed first half, they secured second spot by winning their final three sets.
After a poor run of three defeats, Steve Gill got his act together before losing his final set, while young Caitlin Dustan and Mary Sobey did really well, winning five of their nine sets.
Charlie Watt was in second place at the break, but then lost three sets on the spin. Harry Sutherland had a decent second half along with Alana Coutts, the highlight being the aforementioned victory over the eventual winners.
John Matthews, the other holder of the trophy, ended the day badly with three defeats, Derek Sobey had a bad run of five defeats before finishing strongly while Brian Riddell had a day to forget with just a solitary victory.
Scores: P Coutts 16 pts, 58 shots; A Porter 11 pts, 48 shots; S Gill 10 pts, 46 shots; M Sobey 10 pts, 42 shots; C Watt 9 pts, 51 shots; L Coutts 9 pts, 46 shots; H Sutherland 9 pts, 45 shots; J Matthews 8 pts, 46 shots; D Sobey 6 pts, 37 shots; B Riddell 2 pts, 23 shots.
Ed Harris kept up his early season sparkling form on Monday night, this time in the first competitive action of this season’s Scott Cup. Harris, who has now been an overall winner in all three of the games played so far, was joined by Sam Morrison and Steve Gill in a trio that was 19-0 up on Kevin McWilliam, who then managed to pick up some shots.
After a tight opening half, a four end, fifteen shot spurt put John Matthews in control over Alex Porter.
Harry Sutherland led 8-1 after six ends against Stuart Robertson, who then came back at him, but a nap hand at the final end sealed the game in Sutherland’s favour.
In an amazing comeback, Lindsey Petrie overturned her father, Davie’s 9-1 lead by restricting him to just two shots in their final nine ends.
Scores: S Gill 29, K McWilliam 8; J Matthews 29, A Porter 17; H Sutherland 18, S Robertson 9; L Petrie 12, D Petrie 11.
For the second week in a row, Thursday’s moving hat-night was won by Alex Porter. Ray Boyd partnered him this week, and they won all four sets.
Paul Coutts was 9-0 up after just two ends, but a defeat in the third set brought him back down to earth.
Harry Sutherland was involved in a lot of low-scoring ends, with a steady second half giving him a positive scorecard.
Steve Gill won his first two sets, but a poor final set nearly ruined his evening.
Derek Sobey just about matched his opposition after getting over his heavy, first set defeat.
Mary Sobey finally got a victory in the last set after spending the night on rink 6.
After a poor start to the evening, Jim Ross got a move courtesy of a coin toss. The coin wasn’t so kind to Charlie Watt, who was stranded on Rink 1 for the night.
Scores: A Porter 23 up; P Coutts 13 up; H Sutherland 5 up; S Gill 2 up; D Sobey 7 down; M Sobey 11 down; Jim Ross 12 down; C Watt 13 down.
