West Lothian slump into the relegation zone

Nov 20 2008 West Lothian Courier

WEST Lothian Indoor Bowling Club are too strong and good to be relegated – yet at the halfway stage of their Premier League campaign in the B section they occupy second bottom place which is the play-off position for survival in the top flight.

Having suffered a surprise 85-75 defeat at Arbroath, against a team that was missing Darren Burnett, the stars of the Inveralmond stadium have now lost four of their opening five games.

There is high expectation that there will be a West Lothian bounce when the team travels to Methil this weekend to take on their joint bottom strugglers but East Fife have shown spirit and will not roll over easily on their home carpet.

West Lothian may lack form but they have several top names and a solid backbone so if they can rediscover their own brand of unifying spirit then they can look forward to being upwardly mobile over the second half of the campaign.

Thomas Mann and Graeme Archer missed the match against Arbroath where George Sneddon's battling three shot victory was the best WL could manage with the rinks skipped by Mark Allison, Joey Strickland and Neil Speirs all suffering defeat.

Sneddon looked a certain loser when trailing 11-1 after seven ends. However, he closed to 15-9 then captured to a 22-19 win over G Stewart.

Allison made a good start to lead 6-2 then still had Cameron Greer, Ian Drysdale and Stuart Johnston in a winning position at 14-10 but suffered a lean time over the remaining eight ends and were pipped 19-18 by A Furye.

Strickland made a promising return to the PL scene but having skipped Bryan Cooper, Calum Logan and Ricky Forrest into a 14-9 lead they lost their head of steam and fell away to an 18-15 defeat from D Farquharson.

Speirs should be a match-winner and looked the part when skipping Kenny Black, David Wilson and James Speirs into leads of 12-4 and 20-15 but five barren ends saw the rink collapse to a damaging 29-20 defeat from P Carnegie.

The league table reads, East Lothian 10, Coatbridge 8, Aberdeen 4, Arbroath 4, West Lothian 2, East Fife 2.

EXPECTATIONS at Balbardie IBC for a quick return to the Premier League have to be revised downwards following another depressing performance in the shape of a 77-60 defeat at Tweedbank in the 1B league.

Two wins from five games isn't promotion form and Balbardie now lag four points behind Falkirk – probably six as their latest result hasn't been posted. However, in relegation terms they have Cumbernauld and Alloa beneath them.

Gerry Duggan managed to win at Tweedbank but the rinks skipped by Sandy McDougall, Ewan Shearer and Graeme Byrne all lost.

Duggan benefited greatly from a mighty five at his second last end to skip Gary Orr, John Ellis and Iain Grant to an 18-16 win over A White.

McDougall had Lawson Trotter, Murray Bell and Diz Drysdale in touch at 11-11 but the loss of a five sentenced them to a 17-13 defeat from S White.

Shearer and his rink of Mark Bonar, Scott Murphy and Ian Drysdale recovered from 8-16 to 16-18 but couldn't follow through and tumbled to a 21-15 defeat from N McNally.

Byrne and his front three of Colin Fraser, David Ross and David Lawrie made a disastrous start to trail 14-0 then included a count of five in their 23-13 defeat from K Johnstone.

THE ladies of Balbardie were in fine form to score a commanding 92-61 win over Coatbridge at Bathgate in the E section of the Scottish League Cup but three wins from five still leaves them four points adrift of undefeated leaders Falkirk.

Balbardie prospered from wins on the rinks skipped by Sharon Leitch, Margo Duff and Liz Boyle and didn't pay a costly price for the defeat of Lorraine Malloy.

Leitch included three counts of four as she led all the way and skipped Kim Ross, Agnes Thomas and Marian Coats to a 30-14 win over Marion Mungall.

Duff fired up the home challenge with successive counts of a super six and magnificent seven to lead 19-4 and she carried on to skip Doreen Reeder, Ali Blagg and Pat Purdie to a 29-14 win over Carol Condy.

Boyle made a great start to skip Morven Shearer, Margaret Taylor, and Marion Halliday into a 12-0 lead and having peaked at 20-4 the rink came under pressure but triumphed 22-17 over Margaret McGibben.

Coatbridge skip Janette Bray inflicted a 16-11 defeat on Catherine Lochran, Catherine Shearer, Sadie McKenzie and Malloy.

HOME carpet advantage failed to prevent West Lothian ladies slumping to a 96-70 defeat from Lanarkshire and with just one win and one draw to show from five games they now occupy second bottom position in the E league.

Angie Uttley put up the best show to skip Jennifer Richardson, Jean McPherson and Carole Clarkson to a 22-21 win over Isla Hill having produced an impressive fight-back from 16-4 down.

Ann Clark came close to a win having skipped Irene Wright, Catherine Howie and June Thorburn into a 20-18 losing position before giving 22-20 best to Fiona Kerr.

Margaret Russell and her rink of Irene Taylor, Isabel Lindsay and Lily Sword made a super start to lead 9-0 but fell away to a 25-15 defeat from Margaret Ritchie.

Lean times for Lisa Barrett, Lucy Noon, June Bell and Jennifer Sneddon led to a 28-13 defeat from Kathleen Watts.

BALBARDIE dealt Portobello a 6-2 points defeat in the Headwell Team Championship event played at the Dunfermline venue.

Ewan Shearer was the highest flyer, skipping the gents rink of Alister Wilson, Davie Ross and Andy Forrest to a 27-13 win over Ian Fleming while the Under 35 rink of Mark McCullagh, Scott Murphy, Colin Fraser and Iain Grant beat Andy Caldwell 22-18.

Win number three was contributed by Lorraine Malloy, who skipped Catherine Lochran, Margo Duff and Sharon Leitch to a 22-17 win over Marianne McGarrity.