West Lothian into final after Blantyre triumph

Apr 7 2011 West Lothian Courier

THE chorus of approval didn’t quite lift the roof off the Inveralmond indoor bowls stadium at Livingston but it did make the rafters ring as the home support cheered the title success achieved by the West Lothian rink in the Gents Fours discipline of the Joint Scottish Championships.

The four local hero’s basking in the limelight of national glory were Bryan Cooper, James Speirs, Thomas Mann and Neil Speirs having carried the WLIBC banner to triumph with wins over strongly formed rinks from Blantyre and East Lothian.

Blantyre provided the opposition in the semi final and their rink of George Walker Gerry Sullivan Brian Irvine and Iain McLean got off the mark with a 4 at the first then in a ding-dong battle stood peels at 13-13 before regaining the initiative with a 4 to 17.

Speirs and company closed to 16 with a double on the 17th end but the home support suffered anxious moments as Blantyre stretched to 20 with a 2, 1 reply that made them favourites to reach the final with two ends to play.

However, West Lothian still had other ideas and the domestic champions sent the match temperature soaring with a 3, 1 fightback that put the result into an extra end melting pot, and a sizzling climax saw Speirs and his men edge the match-winning single.

The final promised to be a cracking encounter between two well balanced rinks and a 6-6 deadlock after seven ends was broken by a 4, 1 for West Lothian who then lost a 3 before moving the score on to 14-9 with a hat trick of singles.

West Lothian now looked to have the measure of East Lothian at 15-11 up after 16 ends and stepping up the pressure they stormed to a 22-11 triumph with a whirlwind run of 1, 1, 2, 3.

Arbroath beat East Lothian in the pairs while the triples final saw Blantyre win the title from Stonehaven.

Whilst these finals were being staged at the Inveralmond stadium by the generous gift of Scottish President Willie Duff of Balbardie it was the officials and members of the Bathgate based club that were acting as hosts for the occasion.

And the Balbardie effort received a magnificent bonus in the shape of the ladies Scottish 4 Bowl Pairs crown being one by their superstar partnership of Sharon Leitch and Lorraine Malloy.

Having previously captured the national title in 2006 it was the mission of Leitch and Malloy to emulate that major achievement and they did so with wins over Turriff in the semi finals and East Fife in the final.

The final turned out to be a thrilling affair with a cliff-hanging climax and the opening exchanges were ding-dong with Balbardie opening up a 4-0 lead but crossed 6-4 then coming under pressure at 9-5 down.

Malloy then skipped Leitch to a run of 1, 2, 4 and a lead of 12-9 and stretched to 16-11 before East Fife rallied with a 1, 2, 1, 1 reply that earned them a 16-16 peel to take the final into an extra end.

Leitch won the battle of the leads to hold shot then Malloy improved the position with a cracking first bowl on top of the jack inviting strike action from the opposition.

Stein did make contact and managed to bounce the jack around a bit but when the dust settled it was a Balbardie bowl that lay shot for the title.

East Fife contested all three ladies finals and captured the Triples but also lost the Fours to Whiteinch.