West Lothian IBC ready to return to action after festive break

Jan 13 2011 by Mairon Laird, West Lothian Courier

PREMIER League action returns after the festive season break to Livingston and The Inveralmond stadium this weekend and a highly charged fixture pitches West Lothian IBC against Auchinleck in a vital relegation battle.

Neither team faces the automatic drop as the foot of the table place is reserved for Bainfield but the team that finishes second bottom will find itself in a relegation playoff against the other Premier League section.

West Lothian sit second bottom at the moment and share the six-point mark with Aberdeen while Auchinleck are two points clear of the zone and have much to play for to avoid being sucked into the danger zone.

It is a common belief that West Lothian occupies a false position so with home carpet advantage they have a golden opportunity to launch an escape to safety and all of their big guns are on duty for Saturday’s match.

Rink 1 — James Greenock Ian Drysdale James Speirs and Neil Speirs.

Rink 2 — Cameron Greer Raymond Logan Calum Logan and Thomas Mann.

Rink 3 — Ewan Wilson Des Hagart Stuart Johnston and George Sneddon.

Rink 4 — Richard Mark Blair Mackie Paul Lynas and Mark Allison.

Balbardie sit two-points clear of bottom placed club Portobello in Division 1B of the national leagues and share that spot with Abbeyview and Stirling so their visit to the Edinburgh venue this weekend has an explosive edge to it.

There is no team news through from the Bathgate based club who trail league leaders Alloa by eight-points making their pre-campaign dream of promotion a now impossible one.

West Lothian survived a monumental battle with Headwell in last weekend’s prelim round action in the Scottish Team Championship event having shared the points 4-4 before edging the Fifers out with a 79-74 aggregate score.

Balbardie however failed to live up to their romance with this event with the two times national champions disappointingly crushed 7-1 by Tweedbank.

Junior Scotland caps Cameron Greer and Calum Logan clashed in a semi final of the WLIBC under 25 Singles championship at the Inveralmond stadium and a cracking encounter stood 18-18 before Logan hit 21 with a 2, 1 finish.

Both players were members of the Scotland team that captured the Home International crown at Abbeyview last weekend, stopping an England title hat trick with wins over Ireland, Wales, and the Auld Enemy.