Bowlers top their section

Oct 15 2009 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

IT IS all systems go at the moment for West Lothian IBC in their Premier League campaign and with two wins from two they top the A section on shot margin from Prestwick.

The team from the Inveralmond stadium consolidated their encouraging start to the indoor bowls season with a commanding 33-shot victory (81-48) over chief rivals Midlothian when the teams clashed in the match of the day at Livingston last weekend.

Midlothian welcomed back icon David Peacock but fellow cap Colin Walker was a late absentee leading to his brother Graham being stepped up to skip, while Kevin McDougall was introduced from the bench.

West Lothian continued with former cap Joey Strickland at skip in place of Thomas Mann, who is representing Scotland in the USA, while an extra dimension to the match was the return of Graeme Archer to the Inveralmond carpet – but as a Midlothian player.

“It is very difficult to win here so our expectations were hopeful rather than confident. However I am disappointed that we lost by so many shots,” summed up Midlothian spokesman Frank Gray.

West Lothian were well served by wins for the rinks skipped by Mark Allison, George Sneddon, and Neil Speirs while Billy Peacock was successful for Midlothian.

The opening 7-end phase was hard fought but edged 25-21 by the home side and that proved a springboard for West Lothian dominating the second, 32-18, and the third, 24-9.

The undoubted stars of the show for West Lothian was the rink of Bryan Cooper, Ian Laverie, Calum Logan and Mark Allison, who scored at 16 of the 20 ends completed and contributed a spectacular 29-5 win over the luckless Graham Walker.

Walker and his front-three of Steven Currie, Scott Matthews, and Kevin McDougall showed 3-2 ahead after five ends but a barren spell that lasted 10 ends saw the scoreline transformed into a 24-3 advantage for Allison and Co.

Allison was relentless in dishing out the punishment and he answered the loss of a 2 with a 1, 2, 1, 4 finish.

The luck of the draw pitched Sneddon against former colleague Archer and the smiles were on the West Lothian faces as the home icon skipped Cameron Greer, David Wilson and Stuart Johnston to a 10-shot victory.

Archer and his rink of Calum Crawford, David Salkeld and Willie Rankin soon faced a mountain to climb as Sneddon made steady progress to lead 17-7, then in an 18-end game the home rink triumphed 20-10.

Speirs had things much tougher against Martin Wyllie, Robert Trench, Lindsay Plenderleith and David Peacock, who had the home skip against the collar at 14-11 after 16-ends.

The landscape changed over the next three ends however with Speirs skipping Ewan Wilson, Paul Lynas and James Speirs to a 1, 3, 2 finish that pinched a 17-14 victory.

Billy Peacock made Midlothian’s major impression on the opposition as he skipped Ronnie Duncan, Drew Pearson and Sandy Knight into a 15-6 lead over Richard Mark, Raymond Logan, Des Hagart and Joey Strickland.

Strickland though did claw back some of the leeway and restricted Peacock to a 19-15 victory.

“This was a good two points for us to win after beating Lanarkshire away from home in our opening match,” said a spokesman for West Lothian.

Elsewhere in the A section, Lanarkshire beat Arbroath away, 81-68; and Prestwick beat Auchinleck away, 76-69.

The results in the B section were, Falkirk 80 Blantyre 81; Coatbridge 121 Aberdeen 56; East Lothian 85 Dundee 64.

Balbardie registered their first win of their campaign in the B section of Division 1 making home carpet advantage count in their 82-65 win over Whiteinch while Tweedbank beat Stirling 94-77 and Alloa shocked Bainfield 79-75.