THIS was another great week for Cowdenbeath Bowling Club with the Top Ten competition being clinched on Sunday, writes Jack High.

On Tuesday two Babbs rinks won. Eric McMillan's rink are lying in second place in their section with an outside chance of finishing as highest up second place qualifiers.

On Wednesday the league team visited Abbeyview. In terrible weather conditions all three games were close with three or four ends to go.

As the green got heavier, it got trickier with only Lindsay Black's rink managing to win by a shot. The others lost by four shots.

This almost seals a top four finish in the top league, which gives them a place in the knockout league cup.

Next Wednesday's game is against Broad Street who are well odds on to confirm their first position in the league as they are six points clear with a huge shots advantage over the other teams.

On Thursday, the senior top nine progressed to the semi-final after a good win over Lochgelly at Dunfermline.

Billy Allan and George Beattie won in the pairs, John Allan, Davie Duff, Dave McKay and Mick Heenan won in the rink and Lenny King, Archie Somerville and Eric McMillan lost their game. The semi-final is at Nethertown on Thursday against Rosyth.

On Saturday, three rinks went out in the Three Counties Trophy. Bobby Reekie's rink travelled all the way to Brechin for their game, only for Falkland not to turn up. A complete waste of a day for them.

Mitch Drysdale's rink won by ten at Leven and Derek Easson's rink lost by six at Cupar.

Earlier in the day, the West Fife Top 5 singles tournament came to a close at Broad Street.

Cowdenbeath played Lochgelly in the first semi-final with Alan Leishman, Andy Johnstone and Paul Jamieson winning their games. Wullie Wightman lost his and Robert McFarlane was ahead in his but Lochgelly were beaten by that time. In the other semi-final Dalgety Bay beat Abbeyview. The final was played at 2.00pm with Dalgety Bay winning.

Andy Johnstone, Wullie Wightman and Paul Jamieson lost their games. Robert McFarlane won his and Alan Leishman was slightly behind when the game was lost. A good performance, matching that of two years ago.

The highlight of the week was at Dalgety Bay on Sunday when the final of the West Fife Top 10 was played against Inverkeithing. Cowdenbeath had won through to the final winning every game 6-2 on points and the team was unchanged for the fourth game.

Alan Leishman played a great game in the singles with an 8-2 lead against Steven Marshall junior. The game was then level at 8, 11, 13, 18 and 19 before Alan scored a 2 to get the team off to a great start.

The pair of Derek Easson and Robert McFarlane played some very good bowls on a tricky rink and were on the wrong side of a few big breaks and lost by 7 to Kenny Bauld senior.

The triples of George Beattie, Wullie Wightman and Paul Jamieson played a great game against the Inverkeithing triple of Mark Neill, Gary Tait and David Junor who won the Scottish title last year.

They kept it close throughout and only lost by 6. The rink of Billy Allan, Lindsay Black, Peter Graham and Andy Johnstone got off to a great start and went ten shots up after eight ends on a tricky rink. They managed to maintain this lead to the last end.

This was the last game on the green and Inverkeithing knew that they had to score a four at the last end to win the trophy. Ryan Cunningham, the Inverkeithing skip, managed to burn the last end twice, to have it re-played as Cowdenbeath were lying shots and it was impossible to score a four.

On the third replayed end, Inverkeithing were lying four shots with Andy Johnstone needing to cut down to save the game. He played a 'tournamental' bowl to draw the shot.

Ryan Cunningham still had a shot to trail the jack but missed, meaning that Cowdenbeath drew on points 4-4 but won 70-66 on shots.

The game was played in a good spirit with both teams acknowledging the many rubs of the green. Cowdenbeath now represent the county in next year's Counties Top 10 tournament. A great finish to a good week.