PARKSIDE celebrated a double success in last night's finals of the Edinburgh & Leith bowling championships at Gorgie Mills and it marked a glorious return to the headlines for Alex Hurry jnr, who learned his trade as a youngster at the host club.
Hurry formed a strong Parkside partnership at lead to former Scottish Junior Singles champion Robert Donaldson but were forced to play out of their skins before surviving extra-end drama against John Underwood and Roddy Watson of the Dean in the Cor
onation Pairs.
Parkside looked to be in control at 11-6 up after eight ends but Dean rattled their cage with a run of 1, 3, 1 to peels before being subdued by a hat-trick of singles that pushed Hurry and Donaldson into a 14-11 lead.
Dean were far from finished, however, and they roused the banking with a 1, 2, 1 fightback to cross 15-14 playing the last. Parkside then saved their skin with a single that took the final into an extra end.
Hurry took the limelight by way of plastering the jack with three of his four deliveries and, despite some disturbance from Dean, enough survived to clinch the title for Parkside.
It was to be a night of nail-biting drama all round for the Parkside support with their rink of Hally Cockburn, Ian Kay, Rab Gardner and David Moran 15-10 down to Slateford with just two ends to play in the Coronation Fours.
The outcome was put in the melting pot however when Parkside carded a 6 to cross 16-15. They then clinched the title with a single at the last against a shell-shocked Slateford rink of Jimmy Gordon, Paul Marino, Rab Stewart and Robert Marshall.
Meanwhile, Sighthill turned the final of the David Kyles Triples into a procession with Graeme Eddington, Adam Melrose and Alan Trotter turning on the style to convert a 12-1 lead into a 20-3 win over a luckless Dougie Young, Graham Hayward and Hugh Thomson of Merchiston.
The final of the Under-25 Junior Singles for the James Fleming Trophy was a marathon 30-end treat with Russell Wilson of Juniper Green edging Kyle Newall of Hillside 21-20.
After a ding-dong battle in the early stages, Wilson carded a 2 to 18 then it was back to peels with successive singles from Newall and the nerve ends twanged in both camps when Wilson's 2 to 20 was matched by Newall to leave the outcome on a knife-edge.
In a spectacular climax, Wilson first burned the jack with game point against him then, faced with the same challenge on the replay, snatched the glory from Newall with a last-bowl trail on the jack.
"You dream of memorable events like this happening in your year of office," summed up E&L president David Greig.
