On Monday evening, the National Playing Fields competition was played, with one rink at home and one rink away. In the home game against Dunfermline Northern B.C. M.Rankine, Jim Cameron, K.Bunting and T.Pettigrew (skip) were involved in a very close fought game before losing 15-16. In the away game at Bowhill B.C. J.Lafferty, C.Nash, J.Marshall and B.Bell (skip) were level 10-10 after 13 ends played and 11-11 after 15 ends, before winning the last two ends for a 16-11 victory. A win and a loss will not be good enough to win the trophy. In the Wemyss League the Seniors’ game on Wednesday was against Balgonie B.C. In the home game, L.MacAllister, D.McKillop, D.Whyte and J.Marshall (skip) lost 10-20, while in the away game there was a 15-20 defeat for S.Mackie, B.Marchbank, B.Bell and P.McTavish (skip). The overall result was a 5 points to nil win for Balgonie.
There were two crucial Division 1 games also played this week, with Thornton the visitors on Wednesday evening. On rink 4, M.Comrie, B.Bell, Jamie Cameron and D.Comrie (skip) narrowly lost 11-13, while on rink 5 M.Dewar, T.Pettigrew, T.Young and R.Crawford (skip) didn’t fare any better, eventually losing 10-24. It was left to B.Drysdale, S.McFarlane, J.Davies and C.Falconer (skip) on rink 6 to take something from the game, but unfortunately, it was not to be, as they lost 12-18. The overall result was an 8-0 defeat to seriously dent the Markinch league title challenge. This made Friday’s home game against Balgonie a “must win” game or a Division 1 title challenge would evaporate. On rink 6, B.Drysdale, J.Clark, J.Davies and C.Falconer (skip) were in total command, losing only 4 ends in the game to record a 33-8 win. On rink 4, it was a similar story, as M.Comrie, K.Bunting, Jamie Cameron and D.Comrie (skip) only lost 5 single shots to notch up another 2 points with a 20-5 win. It was left to T.Dewar. M.Dewar, T.Pettigrew and T.Young (skip) on rink 2 to complete the whitewash, but they were involved in a very close game. They trailed 7-9 before picking up 5 shots on end 12 to take the lead and although they led 15-11 with 3 ends to play, the game went to the very last bowl, before a 16-15 win was the result. This gave Markinch the maximum 8 points and gets the Division 1 title challenge back on course.
On Saturday afternoon the Fife Finals took centre stage at Windygates B.C. and there was home interest in the Senior Fours final with D.Baldie, B.Marchbank, B.Bell and P.McTavish (skip) flying the Markinch flag. On a day, perfect for bowling, there was no excuse for not performing, unfortunately, this was the case for the Markinch squad, as they were well beaten by the Duffus Park team losing the final by 19-8. The only words of comfort from the members who turned up to cheer them on was that “at least they got to the final.”
On Sunday, at Strathmiglo B.C., the semi-final and final of the Fife Top 5 competition was taking place. In the first semi-final, Markinch faced Cupar B.C. and there were wins for K.Bunting (21-17), T.Pettigrew (21-18)and C.Falconer (21-16) and defeats for B.Drysdale (7-21) and J.Clark(16-21), although in Jim’s game he fought back from 15-2 down to trail only 16-17. He was actually lying another 3 shots on the next end before his opponent drew the shot and went on to win the game. However, it was Markinch who progressed into the final with a 3-2 win. The final was against Duffus Park B.C. and this promised to be too close to call who would win. The first game off was a win for Duffus Park with C.Falconer losing 3-21. This was countered by a high standard performance from K.Bunting, who won his game comfortably by 21-11. The next game to finish was Jim Clark, who put Markinch ahead with an excellent 21-16 victory. On rink 1, T.Pettigrew had been trailing for all of the game before storming through to square his game 20-20. He was lying game and a Top 5 win, unfortunately, his opponent managed to come in with the last bowl to turn out the Markinch bowl to win the game 21-20. The trophy now hinged on the last game and B.Drysdale was putting up a great fight, but on so many occasions his opponent came in to grab the shot and he eventually lost the game 14-21. The result was a 3-2 win for Duffus Park B.C., so Markinch failed to retain the trophy, after an absolutely enthralling, high standard bowling match. The Ladies Fife finals are being played at Markinch on Saturday with the possibility of Emma Blyth playing in the Single hand final. Hopefully, the weather will be dry and sunny and a good crowd will turn up to support the Ladies.
