Bowling: West crush opponents in section

May 28 2009 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

WEST Lothian continue to set the pace in the East section of the Scottish Cities and Counties Championship having produced another storming performance to crush Stirling County East by 51 shots at Pumpherston.

The rinks skipped by Thomas Mann, John Aitken, Graeme Archer, and Grant Logan produced strong winning performances, each in double figures, but there were setbacks for Raymond Logan and Neil Speirs in West Lothian's 144-93 victory.

The team managed by former Hibs, Rangers, and Scotland star Colin Stein shares the top spot on six points with Edinburgh and Leith but in comparison to the 43 of their rivals have amassed the spectacular total of 107 shots from their three games played.

Wins over Stirling and Fife are not the strongest of measures of course but coming on top of the opening away success over last season's section winners Midlothian it breeds a confidence that the Stein Machine is in fine tune for the tougher battles ahead.

Stirling East arrived at Pumpherston still seeking their first win but the opening seven-end phase belied that as they had their nose in front on four of the ends before the home team edged them 40-39.

West Lothian established a firmer 48-32 grip on the second phase then really stepped on the accelerator to score a 56-22 runaway on the third.

Mann emerged the top man for WL as he skipped Frazer Muirhead, Walter McDougall, and the returning Gary Smith to a 29-7 win over Stuart Hogg having zipped into a 15-3 lead and producing a big 1, 3, 1, 4 finish.

Aitken picked up the pace from 7-6 with a run of 1, 3, 3, 1, 1, 3 to 19 then skipped Bryan Cooper, Gerry Duggan, and Calum Logan to a 28-10 win over Roy Ross.

Archer still had it to do at 12-15 down after 12 ends but stormed to 25 with a run of 3, 1, 1, 2, 2, 4 then skipped Stewart McMaster, James Speirs, and Alec Allan to a 29-17 win over Stuart Williamson.

Logan (Grant) advanced from 5-4 to 16-4 with a run of 1, 4, 1, 1, 2, 2 then skipped George Sneddon, Iain Grant, and Blair Mackie to a 20-10 win over Steven Glen.

Speirs and his rink of Cameron Greer, Ian Robertson, and Sandy McDougall trailed 22-11 after 14-ends and although capturing six of the remaining seven ends went down to a 24-20 defeat from Simon Thomson.

While Logan (Raymond) and his front-three of Ewan Shearer, Barry Sword, and Andy Dunnett encountered hard times on 13 of the 21 ends in suffering a 25-18 defeat from Gary Crosbie.

Border are always a test for the best at home and they proved too good for Midlothian at Berwick with a 128-101 victory that dealt a major blow to the qualifying prospects of the 2008 section winners.

Edinburgh and Leith made it three wins in a row at the 128-120 expense of West Fife at Abbeyview having faced disaster at 25 down on completion of the first 7-end phase.

East Lothian beat Fife 128-109 at Port Seton.

It's question time for both teams when undefeated table-toppers West Lothian and Edinburgh and Leith clash at Mayfield in this Saturday's Hamilton Trophy fixture.

WL will field an unchanged team while E&L welcome back Scotland Cap Billy Mellors for his first match in this season's campaign.

West Lothian champions Bathgate faced a tough task at Port Glasgow in last Sunday's first round of the Roofline Scotland Inter County Top Ten Tournament and failed to up their game enough in a 6-2 points defeat.

Bryan Cooper had the awesome task of challenging 2007 Scottish Singles Champion Sandy Wotherspoon (also finalist in 2008) on his own patch and although making a bold start to lead 10-3 and 12-10 then crashed to a 21-12 defeat.

Much was expected of two-in-a-row County Pairs champions Diz Drysdale and David Lawrie but they suffered a 25-7 drubbing while the loss of a 7 at the last cost Dick Saunders, David McCormick, and Alan McCormick a 16-13 defeat in the Triples.

Bathgate made their best impression in the Fours with Ian Drysdale, Gerry Duggan, Grant Taylor and Brian Saunders delivering a 12-9 victory.

The seeded players continued to tumble in Monday night's second round of the West Lothian Junior Open for The Fred Meikle Trophy with Kenny Miller (No.4) and former champion Blair Mackie (No.6) both bowing out.

Miller of Buchan Park made a 21-12 exit to Andrew Semple of Oakbank at Broxburn while Mackie lost 21-16 to Mark McCullagh of Buchan Park at Kirkliston.

Bryan Cooper the holder and No.1 seed from Bathgate soldiers on with a 21-7 win over Alan Patterson of Harrysmuir at Kinneil and is joined by No.2 seed Thomas Mann of Newbridge who survived a 21-19 thriller against Mark Campbell of Ratho at Winchburgh.

Cameron Greer (No.5) of Bathgate beat Andrew Suddon of Kirkliston 21-10 at Kinneil while Steven Forrest (No.8) from Kirkliston triumphed 21-14 over M Easton of Bathgate at Blackburn.

R Hutchison of Oakbank edged a 21-20 nail-biter over Adam Gilliland of Bankton Mains at Blackburn while Colin Cruickshanks of Pumpherston advanced at the 21-19 expense of C Kirkwood (Whitburn) at Polbeth.

Newbridge dealt 2007 champions Linlithgow a 66-45 defeat in the prelim round of the Rosebery Cup while Kinneil beat Springgrove 70-59 and Middleton Hall edged Stoneyburn, 53-50.

West Lothian end their section campaign in the Scottish Under-25 League against Glasgow at Armadale on Sunday (2pm).