West Lothian IBC sent crashing out of Scottish Cup

Apr 14 2011 West Lothian Courier

WEST Lothian IBC made an 82-56 exit to East Lothian in the semi final stage of the Scottish Cup played at Abbeyview, Dunfermline, last Saturday having lost on three of the four rinks.

Neil Speirs managed to scrape a laudable single shot win over East Lothian’s ace skip, Alex Marshall MBE, but the rinks skipped by Thomas Mann, George Sneddon, and Mark Allison were unable to get the measure of their respective opposition.

The stakes were additionally high entering the high profile clash between the prominent Premier League sides with West Lothian targeting a record extending sixth title success and the chance to do so on home territory in the final at the Inveralmond stadium.

East Lothian were ambitious to step up their bid for a successful defence of the cup and so keep their chances alive of equalling the record five wins of West Lothian.

West Lothian’s cup form had been better than their disappointing league performances and they promised a continuation by making the better start to lead on three of the four rinks and capture the first 7-end phase, 27-21.

However, Phase 2 brought about a scoreboard transformation with East Lothian benefiting from a 6, two 5’s, and a 4 to step up the pace and accelerate to a 38-16 domination that turned the tables in their favour.

And try as they might the West Lothian effort to make up the lost ground never quite achieved the necessary momentum and it was East Lothian that firmed up its grip on the match with a 23-13 score on the closing phase.

Speirs came out of the hat against the strongly formed opposition rink of Mal Higgenbotham Stevie Thomson Steven Morgan and Alex Marshall and battled extremely well to skip Richard Mark Raymond Logan and Calum Logan to a 13-12 victory from 10-6 down.

Mann made an encouraging start to skip Bryan Cooper Scott Logan and James Speirs into a 7-1 lead over Les Middler John Stevenson Andrew Jeffrey and Scott Kennedy but the later loss of 3, 1, 5, 1, 1 saw them crossed 16-11 and lose 19-17.

Sneddon and his rink of Ewan Wilson Des Hagart and Paul Lynas opened with two singles but then registered ten duck eggs in a row to trail 11-2 and they went on to suffer a 21-10 defeat from Colin Cook Ross Thomson Jamie Higgins and Derek Oliver.

Allison and his front-three of Cameron Greer Ian Drysdale and Stuart Johnston made a super start to lead 11-2 after four ends but only managed to add four singles after that and with their losses including two hefty 6’s they crashed to a 30-16 defeat from Mark Johnston Neil Pringle Willie Wood MBE and Graham Robertson.

West Lothian stage the final of the Scottish Cup this Saturday at the Inveralmond stadium on behalf of SIBA President Willie Duff and his club Balbardie and the opposition to East Lothian comes from Lanarkshire.

Lanarkshire counted a double on the last end of the rink skipped by Gary Neilson to snatch a single shot victory (70-69) that avenged their own single shot defeat at the hands of Midlothian in the final of the Premier League playoff.

Both teams are strongly formed and well supported so a large crowd and great atmosphere is expected making it a worthwhile spectacle for the neutral supporter to turn up and add to the occasion.

West Lothian IBC experienced a weekend of woe with their hopes of landing the Gordon Dunwoodie Memorial Scottish Team Championship title for the first time dashed by a 6-2 points defeat from Elgin in the final at Fintry last Sunday.

West Lothian’s only success came in the Triples with Bryan Cooper skipping Jenifer Richardson and Ewan Wilson to commanding 26-11 win over Margaret Stepney Isobel Laing and Norman Barker

Cooper and company led 10-4 and 17-6 then from 17-10 added 2, 5, 2 to stay on top.

Richard Mark played the spearhead role in the Singles and was making an impression at 9-9 however he lost ground rapidly and suffered a 21-11 defeat from Graeme Donaldson.

The pairs partnership of Margaret Russell and David Wilson lost a damaging 6 to go 10-1 down then trailed 17-7 before a late recovery put a 19-16 complexion on their defeat from Melanie and Stuart Cruickshank.

George Sneddon had Lisa Barrett June Bell and Stewart McMaster in touch at 15-17 down in the Fours but they went down 24-18 to Alison Gillies Shona Farquhar William Farquhar and Andrew Barker.

The title was a first for Elgin in the event.