The ODA Parish Cup Final between Holm and St.Ola took place last Saturday in the Quoyburray Inn and with both sides at full strength it promised to be a very close game. Guest of honour Eddie Craigie, a popular and long time stalwart of the game, addressed both teams before the final got underway and his words were appreciated by both teams and spectators alike.

First on for St.Ola were Craig Taylor and Ray Butcher who were both undefeated in the doubles this season however that record came to an end when they went down 2-0 to the father and son combination of Robbie and Sean Stanger. Freddie Tait and Leigh Shearer doubled Holm’s lead with a 2-1 win over Jimmy Miller and Mark Louttit before the final doubles of the first half saw a close game between Holm’s Bruce Moar and Billy Ward and St.Ola’s Roy Foubister and Wayne Monkman. With the score at 1-1 Monkman pulled off a 108 checkout to give St.Ola their first victory and reduce the deficit to 2-1.

The last doubles game provided the four players for the first two singles with Moar playing Monkman and Ward playing Foubister. This time it was Moar that took out the big finish with 100 checkout in his 2-1 win over Monkman and despite Foubister hitting a second 180 he couldn’t stop Ward from winning 2-1 to give Holm a 4-1 lead.

Another two very close games followed with Robbie Stanger defeating Craig Taylor 2-1 and Brian Stevenson Jnr beating Ray Butcher by the same scoreline to give Holm a commanding 6-1 lead with just two games to go in the first half. Jimmy Miller and skipper Mark Louttit were last on in the first half for St.Ola and despite both trying desperately to reduce the overall deficit it was Holm’s Freddie Tait and Leigh Shearer that won both games 2-0 respectively to give Holm a very commanding 8-1 lead at half time.

After some excellent half time sustenance provided by the Quoyburray Inn both teams returned to the oche for the start of the second half with St.Ola needing something dramatic to happen to turn things around.

This time Holm skipper Moar paired up with Stevenson and they duly despatched Monkman and Foubister 2-0 to make the score 9-1 and guarantee Holm at least a play-off. Next up for St.Ola was Louttit and Miller and despite a dogged performance it wasn’t enough as Ward and Stanger won the game 2-1 with Robbie hitting the winning double to put the seal on an emphatic victory and make the score 10-1. Now it was all about pride for the St.Ola team and Butcher and Taylor returned to their winning ways with an excellent 2-0 win over Tait and Shearer in the last doubles to give St.Ola a second point.

Into the second series of singles and despite Roy Foubister hitting a third 180 in the final he went down 2-1 to a buoyant Sean Stanger before Monkman won his singles against Shearer to make the score 11-3 in Holm’s favour. That was as good as it got though for the St.Ola team as Holm closed out the remaining four singles games, all by a 2-0 scoreline, to make the final score 15-3 to Holm.

By the end of the match a good crowd had gathered in the Quoyburray and they watched on as the Holm skipper Bruce Moar was called forward to accept the cup from Eddie Craigie. Although the scoreline was harsh on the St.Ola team, the Holm boys always seemed to be just in control and at the end few could argue that they didn’t deserve to get their name on the trophy. Their experience of losing the previous two finals obviously inspired them to victory this time.

On behalf of the ODA I would like to thank all the teams, players and venues for making the competition the success it has been so far. With the dust barely settled after this season’s final there has already been talk over next season’s Parish Cup and we haven’t even reached the end of March! Word on the street is Stenness will return and Harray are going to enter a team for the first time so that along with some changes in personnel for some of the other teams will no doubt make for an even more interesting competition.