West Lothian dominate Indoor Fours Championship

Mar 10 2011 West Lothian Courier

WEST Lothian dominated the gents Scottish indoor bowls Fours championship played at Dalkeith. The rink of Bryan Cooper James Speirs Thomas Mann and Neil Speirs secure wins over the domestic champions of Teviotdale, Bainfield, Lanarkshire, and Tweedbank, earning West Lothian a place in the showcase climax to the national championships being staged on their own carpet at Livingston on April 2 and 3.

The WL champions launched their title campaign with a commanding 30-10 win over Teviotdale in the prelim round then produced another strong performance to score a 26-17 victory over Bainfield.

Speirs and Mann have a national pairs title already on their CV and the seasoned internationalists pressed on towards more glory with an impressive 24-13 success over a Lanarkshire rink skipped by fellow cap Robert Grant.

The outcome of that second round confrontation being heavily influenced by an eight end spell that saw Speirs and Co transform the scoreline from 4-7 to 19-9 with counts of 3, 4, (2), 4, 1, 1, 1, 1 against Mark McGowan JP McFarlane Robert Gordon and Grant.

The section final pitched West Lothian against Tweedbank and the Border challengers made the early running to lead 7-3 but WL soon moved up a gear to lead 16-10 and, although pressed all the way to the winning line, they continued to do enough for an 18-15 victory.