West Lothian cruise to ten-shot triumph over Bainfield in Premier League

Oct 14 2010 West Lothian Courier

WEST Lothian bounced back from their opening-match defeat with a workmanlike performance to beat Bainfield by 10 shots (74-64) when the teams clashed in the B section of the Premier League at the Inveralmond stadium last weekend.

The victory wasn’t comprehensive with narrow defeat suffered on two rinks, however clear-cut wins for returning skips Thomas Mann and Mark Allison were good enough to capture the two match points.

“This is a competitive section so we have to win our home matches and are expected to do so and although coming under some second half pressure we always had our head in front of an opposition that gave us a stern test,” summed up a spokesman for the home team.

Both teams had lost their opening match so Bainfield made the short journey to Livingston fired up with a determination to do better and despite losing their team manager John Bell was pleased with his team’s form and attitude.

“West Lothian isn’t an easy team to tackle at home and so it proved as they deserved to win. However Bainfield refused to roll over when under pressure from a daunting 22-shot deficit after 10-ends,” reflected the visiting boss.

The unfolding phase of scoring paints a more tightrope picture of the match with West Lothian making a great start to win the first 7-ends, 26-14 but only edging the second, 23-22 before losing the third, 28-25.

Mann made a major contribution to WL morale by skipping Paul Lynas, Des Hagart and Raymond Logan into a 15-3 lead after 12-ends then answered pressure at 19-16 with a 3, 2 finish to beat Robert Marshall 24-16.

Allison also made a good start to skip Cameron Greer Blair Mackie and Stuart Johnston into a 10-4 lead after nine ends but the home rink slipped to 12-11 down before picking up strongly to beat Paul O’Donnell 23-18.

James Speirs looked to be winging his way to victory when skipping Ewan Wilson James Greenock and Jimmy Mallon into an 11-4 lead after 10-ends but only managed to add two more singles in a 14-13 defeat from Gavin Smith.

Calum Logan also looked good for a win when skipping Richard Mark Ian Drysdale and Bryan Cooper into a 12-8 lead after 15-ends but lost 4 at the next and slipped to a 16-14 defeat from Jamie Gracie.

The other results in the B section were: East Lothian 89 Auchinleck 52; Aberdeen 65 Midlothian 76.

West Lothian make the long trek north to take on Aberdeen with an unchanged team this Saturday.

Balbardie messed up their expected challenge for promotion big time when crashing to a shock 84-72 defeat from Tweedbank at Bathgate.

Sadly it was a bad day at the office for all four home rinks with skips Walter McDougall, Sandy McDougall, Ewan Shearer, and Graeme Byrne all failing to deliver a win.

The signs weren’t at all good deep into the match with Balbardie trailing 65-52 after 15 ends and the expected strong finish from a home team failed to materialise.

Byrne managed to salvage an 18-18 peel against Alistair White and two close calls saw Shearer and Sandy McDougall lose by a single shot, 21-20 and 17-16, to Neil McNally and Stuart White respectively.

But Walter McDougall couldn’t make any late headway from 21-14 down at 15-ends and lost 28-18 to Kenny Johnstone.

Balbardie have now lost two out of two so need to redeem themselves quickly but it looks their toughest call yet when travelling this weekend to take on an Abbeyview team that has just scored a great 100-73 away win over Portobello.

The Balbardie line up will be beefed up however by the return to action of Ian Drysdale, David Lawrie, and Gary Orr. Andy Forrest steps up to skip for the unavailable Sandy McDougall.

The ladies of West Lothian made the short journey to Bainfield last weekend in the C section of the Scottish League Cup but failed to win on any of their four rinks and suffered a hefty 103-59 defeat.

Wendy Purdie came closest but having skipped Beth Erskine, Jean McPherson and Jenifer Richardson into a 13-8 lead then slipped to a 21-19 defeat from Marion Dickson.

Ann Clark and her rink of Irene Taylor, Isabel Lindsay and Lisa Barrett trailed 13-5 after 13-ends so did well to contain their defeat to 20-11 against Katherine O’Donnell.

Lily Sword got off the mark by skipping Lucy Noon, Sandra Purdie and Jean Brown to a 5 at the fourth end but later conceded a 6 and a 7 in a 31-17 defeat from Kate Barr.

Jennifer Sneddon and her at times luckless rink of Betty Tate, Irene Fergus and Helen Tully were restricted to counts at just 5 of the 21 ends in a 31-12 defeat from Anne Watson.

West Lothian entertain this weekend a Portobello team that went down 77-76 at Teviordale.

Balbardie ladies were in fine fettle to score an encouraging 100-80 away win over Cumbernauld in the D section and this weekend travel to Allander.

West Lothian Seniors edged a 57-56 thriller against Midlothian at Livingston where the hero figure was Davie Anderson whose two lead bowls at the last end were toppers that led to a match winning single on the rink skipped by Ron Scott against Jim Traynor.

The Seniors travelled to Teviotdale yesterday (Wednesday) with the team lining up as follows: Rink 1 – W Gorrie P Young J Craig and J Kenneway.

Rink 2 – A Lindsay C Russell R McMahon and R Martin.

Rink 3 – D Anderson G Clark D Lawler and R Scott.

Rink 4 – C Sturrock S Orr I Combe and G Rarity.