Neil Speirs back on familiar ground and in imperious form

May 5 2011 West Lothian Courier

NEIL SPEIRS made a triumphant return to his old hunting ground this week.

The three-time former champ who won it at Ratho on all three occasions before moving to pastures new at Uphall Station then Kirkliston, was in great form at the weekend.

Speirs – winner of the World Cup Singles in 2006 – teamed up with Bryan Cooper of Bathgate to capture the £400 winners prize competed for by 80 partnerships in the £1000 Open Pairs event sponsored by Belhaven Brewery.

The Edinburgh challenge was numerically strong and almost produced a winner with Davy Charles and Paul O’Donnell of Bainfield just falling at the final hurdle.

Having played well and battled hard to reach the final it looked for a time that the Charles/O’Donnell partnership could land the spoils as a purple patch run of 2, 1, 2, wiped out a 3-0 deficit for them to lead Cooper and Speirs, 5-3.

But the next end brought a major transformation with the West Lothian hot-pots conjuring up a magic 3 to cross 6-5 then last end drama saw Speirs blacken the white with two cracking draws to card a double and clinch an 8-5 victory.

“It was good to welcome Neil back to Ratho and he treated us to two days of spectacular play that was a treat for us all to watch,” commented Frank Dowling of the host club.

Dowling won the Open Pairs with Guy Palmer in 2009 but they made an exit in the Last-16 stage to Cooper and Speirs who then beat Speirs Senior and Andy Forrest in the quarterfinals and the Stewart McMaster/Jim Mallon partnership in the semis.

O’Donnell launched his second days play by skipping Charles to a clear cut win over the Ramsay brothers, Gordon and Andrew of Slateford in the quarterfinals then caused another great stir at the expense of defending champions Andy Dunnett and Grant Logan in the semis.

The other losing partnerships at the quarter-finals stage were the Edinburgh partnerships of Graham Laidlaw and Colin Bell, and Danny McKendrick and Stuart Clark.

Prominent partnerships that failed to make the later stages of the event included, Greg and Calum Logan, Scott and Kenny Logan, Stuart Grant and Raymond Logan.

MEANWHILE Gary Smith – the CEO of World Bowls Ltd – has made a great start to his stint as Sponsorship Convenor of the West Lothian Bowling Association having negotiated a two-year deal with Winter Jack High Insurance.

THE under-25 brigade of the WLBA launch their campaign for the Scottish League Cup title at Linlithgow this Sunday with Stirlingshire providing the opposition to a team that reads as follows: Rink 1 – K McConnell (Armadale) D McLaughlin (Uphall Station) G Baldry (East Calder) and K Black (East Calder).

Rink 2 – C Black (East Calder) S Tough (East Calder) G Ramsay (East Calder) and C Greer (Bathgate).

Rink 3 – A Irvine (West Calder) A Suddon (Kirkliston) B Nicholson (Broxburn) and C Logan (Kirkliston).

Rink 4 – C Ramsay (E Calder) C Kirkwood (Whitburn) A Ure (Kinneil) and M McCullagh (Uphall Station).

Rink 5 – R Miller (Buchan Park) C Paterson (Uphall Station) R Millar (East Calder) and B Mackie (Newbridge).

Rink 6 – S McMaster (Broxburn) S Hardie (West Calder) D Russell (Stoneyburn) and A Semple (Oakbank).

The reserves to travel are, M Campbell (Ratho) and G Borland (Oakbank).

Other squad members are, P Barrett (Deans) C Brown (Bellsburn) R Duffy (Newbridge) S Fleming (Buchan Park) R Hutchison (Oakbank) D Muir (West Calder) C Nelson (Oakbank) S Salmond (West Calder).

The team will play a practice game at Linlithgow tonight (Thursday) commencing at 6.30pm.