Stewart Meikle’s Bowls

Mar 4 2010 by Mairon Laird, West Lothian Courier

GRAEME Byrne skipped Balbardie to the Scottish indoor bowls Fours title in 2001 and the 38-year-old Development Engineer is back on course for a 2010 repeat having skipped a new front three into the semi-final stage.

The playdown action at Methil over the weekend saw Byrne skip David Drysdale, Gary Orr and David Lawrie to a hat-trick of wins defeating Falkirk, Bainfield and West Lothian to make the last four stage at Prestwick IBC on Saturday, March 27.

Balbardie walked over against Castlemilk then produced excellent form from a cold start in the first round proper to score a commanding 23-11 win over the Falkirk rink skipped by Tom Cochrane.

Their second challenge was a tough one in the shape of an experienced Bainfield rink comprising Graeme McIntosh, Paul O’Donnell, Stevie McLeod and Barry Hill, who had launched their campaign with an excellent win over Midlothian.

Hill was the star turn against Midlothian having produced a neat trail on the jack to count four shots at the second last to go five up and then sentence Ronnie Duncan, Martin Wyllie, Graham Walker and Colin Walker to a 23-16 exit.

The Bainfield challenge was again played out on a tightrope situation against Tweedbank in the first round proper and Hill and Co trailed by three shots going into the last but escaped from jail with a magic count of 4 to edge a 21-20 thriller.

Bainfield made a brilliant start against Balbardie with Hill and his team-mates carding a mighty 5 at the first end, but that early advantage was negated by a fighting 1, 4, 2 reply from Byrne and his rink to cross 7-5.

Balbardie entered the third-last end with a two-shot edge and after a dramatic alteration to the head carded a further 3 to establish a five-shot lead that climaxed in a 26-21 victory.

Balbardie next faced a section final against their county neighbours West Lothian and a rink where Paul Lynas was linking up with former British Isles Champions Stewart Gibson, Stuart Johnston and Ricky Forrest.

Forrest and Co had kicked off their latest campaign with a 35-12 win over Fintry then in a traumatic climax edged a 17-16 nailbiter against vintage East Lothian challengers James Hogg, Andrew Jeffrey, Scott Kennedy and Willie Wood MBE.

That was a massive win for West Lothian and Forrest and Co continued to look good with a winning 21-15 performance over Alloa to set up the clash with Balbardie.

Forrest was immense with conversions over the opening ends to skip WL into a 6-0 lead but Balbardie got themselves off the mark with a timely count of 5 and that triggered a transformation that swept them into a commanding 18-6 lead.

The Portobello challenge was at West of Scotland IBC where the rink of Jamie Reid, Kerr McKail, Andrew Caldwell and John McDermott beat Cumbernauld 22-11 before losing a 21-19 battle to Headwell.

Lanarkshire (Robert Grant), Paisley (John Gilmartin) and Garioch (Brian Jessiman) joined Balbardie in the semi finals.

WEST Lothian IBC’s defence of the ladies Scottish Fours title came to grief in the second round of the playdown action at Methil with last season’s successful rink of Irene Taylor, Jennifer Sneddon, Angela Uttley and Wendy Purdie losing to Perth.

The 2009 national champions opened their 2010 challenge in great style with a spectacular 29-5 win over East Lothian in the prelim round at Abbeyview then followed up with a tremendous 22-5 triumph over Alloa.

The switch to Methil did Purdie and Co no favours however as the reigning champions failed to click on the East Fife IBC carpet and paid the price with a heavy 24-8 defeat from Perth.

Meanwhile the Balbardie IBC rink of Catherine Lochran, Kim Ross, Marian Coats and Sharon Leitch launched their campaign with a battling 23-19 win over Fintry in the first round proper.

But the Balbardie champions found themselves 9-2 adrift to a strong Midlothian rink in the second round and although putting up a great fight suffered a 19-18 defeat from Joyce Green, Jeanette Conlan, Sandra McLeish and Agnes Melrose.

Midlothian went on to beat Perth 26-12 to reach the semi-finals stage and are joined by Stonehaven, Ardrossan, and Coatbridge at Prestwick on Saturday, March 27.

WEST Lothian IBC step up their Scottish Cup campaign this weekend with a second-round clash against moderate Division One club Ardrossan at Whiteinch on Saturday.

Top skips Neil Speirs and George Sneddon are absentees and their shoes will be filled by the promotion of Calum Logan and the recall of Ricky Forrest who is a past skip of a British Isles title winning rink.

Stewart Gibson – another member of that British Isles rink – comes off the bench to play lead in a team formation that reads: Rink 1 – Stewart Gibson, Blair Mackie, Bryan Cooper and Calum Logan.

Rink 2 – Paul Lynas, Des Hagart, Raymond Logan and Thomas Mann.

Rink 3 – Cameron Greer, Joey Strickland, Stuart Johnston and Ricky Forrest.

Rink 4 – Richard Mark, James Greenock, James Speirs and Mark Allison.