The Bon Accord squad made the short journey to Montrose BC today to face Angus BA and to complete the North Section Round of matches. Last week had seen us successfully retain the North Section Trophy with a 6th consecutive Section win. Today we were aiming to record a 100% win rate in the section. The rink draws produced the following line-ups:

Rink 1 – Owen Jack, Colin Clark, David Cobban-Shaw & Paul Hay v P Martin

Rink 2 – Jim Shea, Steve Buchanan, Kevin Harper & Derek McNicol v P Thompson

Rink 3 – Ellis Adie, John Mackay, Ross Stewart & Jak Miller v D Garvie

Rink 4 – Craig Burnett, Alex McCallum, Willie Stewart & Eric Gallan v A Fuyre

Rink 5 – Ben Inglis, Keith Morrison, Zander Main & Callum Work v T Dickson

Rink 6 – Rory Thomson, Callum Reid, Martyn Orchard & Roy Henry v G Milne

The game got underway in sunshine and it was Bon Accord who were quickest off the mark with Paul Hay’s rink opening with counts of 3 and 4 on the first two ends, Derek McNicol’s rink counting 3 on the first end and Eric Gallan’s rink scoring 7 shots on the first 3 ends without reply. After 5 ends played on all the rinks Bon Accord led 32-18 and the rinks scores were

Paul Hay 9-1 up
Derek McNicol 4-3 up
Jak Miller 3-2 up
Eric Gallan 8-2 up
Callum Work 3-5 down
Roy Henry 5-5 level

Into the 2nd quarter and Bon Accord continued to keep the pressure on the home team. During this period Roy Henry’s rink won 4 of the 5 ends and Callum Work’s rink had a count of four. Bon Accord had stretched their lead to 26 shots (62-36). The individual rink scores after 10 ends played on all were:

Paul Hay 15 -4 up
Derek McNicol 11-6 up
Jak Miller 5-5 level
Eric Gallan 10-6 up
Callum Work 7-9 down
Roy Henry 14-6 up

If Angus were to get anything out of the game they had to start reducing the deficit but Bon Accord continued to keep their side of the scoreboard ticking over during the 3rd quarter. After 15 ends played across all the rinks Bon Accord led 84-67 and the rink scores were:

Paul Hay 21-8 up
Derek McNicol 12-13 down
Jak Miller 7-10 down
Eric Gallan 15-8 up
Callum Work 11-14 down
Roy Henry 18-14 up

Into the last quarter and over the next 18 ends Bon Accord increased the lead to 104-77 (27 shots) with Derek’s and Eric’s rinks both counting shouts of 4!

At this stage it was difficult to see Angus making a dramatic comeback and so it was that Bon Accord saw out their 7th successive win this season by 121-92.

The final rink scores were:

Paul Hay 28-8 up
Derek McNicol 22-18 up
Jak Miller 13-14 down
Eric Gallan 23-15 up
Callum Work 12-21 down
Roy Henry 23-16 up

Congratulations to the squad, Team Manager John Miller along with the selectors Mike Reid and Alex Gauld for achieving the first objectives of qualifying for the quarter finals and winning the North Section.

All the best to Angus BA for the remainder of their season. Thank you to Montrose BC and all your members today for hosting the match. Also thanks to the umpires.

We now move on to next Saturday 19th July and a trip to Arbroath BC for a quarter-final match v East Lothian. Also representing the North Section next week in the quarter finals are Highland BA who face the holders West Lothian at Stenhousemuir BC.