Scotland v Ireland Test Match - Day 1

Scotland and Ireland contested three highly competitive sessions of play on day one of their three-day test series at the National Centre for Bowling, Ayr.

There will be eight sessions of play completed over the weekend with four mini test series being played out in both men’s and women’s disciplines. Scotland’s women’s team made the perfect start to their weekend by winning both singles and fours in the first session of the day. They followed this up with another two victories in the second session to complete a clean slate of wins in their first test series.

In the men’s disciplines, things were much closely fought. The triples team managed to record a victory in their first game, whilst Martyn Rice and Alex Marshall lost out to Mark Wilson and Martin McHugh in the pairs. The second session followed a similar pattern as the points were shared between both nations. Darren Burnett led Mark Wilson 17-10 in the singles, but the Irish man battled back to level at 17 all. Darren managed to keep his cool and played an excellent end to score a full count of four to win 21-17. The men’s fours team battled hard to have a three-shot advantage going into their last end, but Ireland’s skip managed to remove Scotland’s bowl to score the crucial four shots they required to win the match. This meant the men’s first test series finished a draw with both nations tied on 4 points and +60 shots each.

Session three was the beginning of the second test series and it’s all still to play for going into tomorrow morning. Dee Hoggan recorded her second win of the day over Catherine Beattie in the singles, whilst the fours team lost out 11-14 in an excitingly close encounter. Scotland’s iconic duo, Paul Foster MBE & Alex Marshall MBE, managed to record a win in their pairs match but the triples unfortunately came up short to even things up.

All session scores can be found below, and roundups of the remaining five sessions play will be provided on Saturday and Sunday evening.  

Session One (Test Match 1):

• Women’s Singles – Dee Hoggan 21 v Catherine Beattie 9
• Women’s Fours – Hannah Smith, Carla Banks, Megan Grantham & Claire Johnston 20 v Ashleigh Rainey, Lara Reaney, Courtney Meneely & Shauna O’Neill 10
• Men’s Pairs – Martyn Rice & Alex Marshall MBE 9 v Mark Wilson & Martin McHugh 19
• Men’s Triples – Ronnie Duncan, Darren Burnett & Paul Foster MBE 17 v Stuart Bennett, Stephen Kirkwood & Simon Martin 10

Session Two (Test Match 1):

• Women’s Pairs – Hannah Smith & Claire Johnston 15 v Lara Reaney & Catherine Beattie 11
• Women’s Triples – Dee Hoggan, Carla Banks & Megan Grantham 27 v Chloe Wilson, Courtney Meneely & Shauna O’Neill 7
• Men’s Singles – Darren Burnett 21 v Mark Wilson 17
• Men’s Fours – Martyn Rice, Ronnie Duncan, Paul Foster MBE & Alex Marshall MBE 13 v Stuart Bennett, Jack Moffett, Stephen Kirkwood & Martin McHugh 14

WOMEN’S TEST MATCH 1: SCOTLAND 8 v IRELAND 0

MEN’S TEST MATCH 1: SCOTLAND 4 (+60) v IRELAND 4 (+60)  

Session Three (Test Match 2):

• Women’s Singles – Dee Hoggan 21 v Catherine Beattie 12
• Women’s Fours – Carla Banks, Hannah Smith, Megan Grantham & Claire Johnston 11 v Ashleigh Rainey, Chloe Wilson, Courtney Meneely & Shauna O’Neill 14
• Men’s Pairs – Paul Foster MBE & Alex Marshall MBE 20 v Stephen Kirkwood & Martin McHugh 14
• Men’s Triples – Martyn Rice, Ronnie Duncan & Darren Burnett 14 v Jack Moffett, Simon Martin & Mark Wilson 22

WOMEN’S TEST MATCH 2 (CURRENT STANDINGS): SCOTLAND 2 (+32) v IRELAND 2 (+26)

MEN’S TEST MATCH 2 (CURRENT STANDINGS): SCOTLAND 2 (+34) v IRELAND 2 (+36)