TUESDAY saw all three Cowdenbeath Babbs rinks win for the first time in a few weeks. Lindsay Black’s rink won at Inverkeithing, Archie Muir’s rink won at Headwell and Lenny King won at Cowdenbeath.

The first round of the CISWO Top Ten took place with the pairs (Wullie Wightman and Mitch Drysdale) and the triples (Erskine Brash, Eric McMillan and Lindsay Black) travelling to Strathmiglo and the singles (Alan Leishman) and rink (Billy Allan, Davie McKay, Peter Graham and Andy Johnstone) playing them at Cowdenbeath.

The singles won 21-16, the rink lost by 7, the triples earned a draw with the last bowl, and the pairs had a very good win by 13 shots, including an 8 the first end. Cowdenbeath winning overall 5 points to 3.

On Wednesday Kelty visited Cowdenbeath in the West Fife league. Cowdenbeath managed 6 points at Kelty earlier in the season but there were only a few shots in that game. Paul Jamieson’s rink continued their fine form, taking control from the start and winning by 7 shots. Mitch Drysdale got off to a good start but a combination of some good conversion shots and lack of bowls in the head from the Cowdenbeath team, Pat Feeney’s rink came back to win by 4 shots. Despite playing some good bowls, Andy Johnstone’s rink were 11-0 down after 5 ends with Bobby Strachan’s rink getting off to a flier. Andy’s rink came back into the game and if it hadn’t been for Bobby playing some conversion shots and getting the right side of bowls whilst playing with weight Cowdenbeath would have been well up. As it was, they were one down playing the last. With a bowl to come, Bobby had two against him, having missed with his first drive but he adjusted well, hit the head, removed a shot and the points were shared, 3 points each, with Cowdenbeath 3 shots better off. Cowdenbeath are a point ahead of Nethertown but they have a game in hand.

On Thursday the ‘Top 5’ singles was played between Cowdenbeath and Inverkeithing at their green. Derek Easson, who had been playing well this season, failed to catch the road or weight and was hammered 21-1. Andy Johnstone also struggled and lost 21-14. Alan Leishman improved on his league form to win convincingly 21-8. Paul Jamieson won 21-13 which meant the game hung in the balance with two wins each. When the other games were finished, Billy Allan was still playing West Fife singles champion David Junor. The scores were tied at 13-13.

Both players played some good bowls but David ran out 21-15 winner to put Inverkeithing through to the next round. This was unfortunate as the semi-finals and final will be played at Cowdenbeath Bowling Club in 15th August. The friendly game on Saturday was against local rivals Broad Street. The results were as follows with Cowdenbeath skips first, L King 19 T Jeffrey 13, R Reekie 12 D Campbell 12, B Simpson 16 A Nelson 16, E Beattie 14 J Crawford 17 and surprise of the day, M Heenan 21 P Hynd 12.

On Sunday, the invitation pairs took place. After winning their sections, in the semi-finals, Billy Allan and Alan Leishman lost to George and Esther Beattie and Alan Moncur and Peter Graham lost to Eric McMillan and Jim Crawford. In a very good final, played in poor weather, Eric and Jim beat the Beattie’s to pick up the trophy and cash. Well done. Very steady bowling throughout the day.