Three are selected for Scottish side in home international

Feb 12 2009 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

SCOTLAND has capped three of West Lothian’s star figures for the women’s 2009 home international series with Lorraine Malloy of Balbardie joining Angela Uttley and Wendy Purdie of WLIBC on the trip to Belfast in March.

All three are given high profile roles at third to Valerie McGregor (Abbeyview), Elizabeth Fraser (Turriff) and Margaret Letham (Blantyre) respectively.

It is a vote of confidence and continuation of their respective international careers but there is a sense of disappointment that Sharon Leitch of Balbardie has dropped out of favour despite holding her form this season.

Scotland has introduced four new caps including teenager Many O’Donnell of Bainfield so it looks like Leitch has been squeezed out in the drive to introduce new blood.

The top rated gents of West Lothian IBC are suffering their own credit crunch this season and after a miserable campaign in the premier league hopes were high that some esteem would be regained in the Scottish Cup.

The draw was unkind and the five times winners of the Cup won’t be making it six as they made an 82-74 exit to Auchinleck last Saturday.

West Lothian were given every chance of success by good winning performances from the rinks skipped by Neil Speirs and Thomas Mann but hopes of a match success were destroyed by the savage defeat of Graeme Archer and Mark Allison.

Auchinleck captured the first 7-end phase 28-21 and the second 34-30 to lead by 21 shots then West Lothian cut that back with a 33-20 fight back.

The match result was a nightmare for the strongly formed rink of Cameron Greer, James Greenock. George Sneddon and Archer who stood 9-6 up after nine ends then an amazing collapse saw them defeated 28-9.

Their 0-12 contribution on the run in proving costly against the 13-1, 8-0, and 12-7 input from Messrs Mann, Speirs and Allison.

Allison and his rink of Richard Mark, Des Hagart and Ricky Forrest had been through the ringer to stand 26-3 down so improved a bit to finish 33-16 down to Dave Watson.

Speirs was a high-flyer for WL, skipping Stewart Gibson, David Wilson and James Speirs to a 22-8 win while Ewan Wilson, Ian Drysdale, Calum Logan and Mann won 27-13 .

Balbardie IBC delivered a favourites performance at Forfar to score an 89-68 triumph over Fraserburgh in the Scottish Cup. Wins for rinks skipped by Graeme Byrne, Sandy McDougall, and Ewan Shearer provided cover for the defeat of Jim Speirs.

Whilst Balbardie never looked back after picking up the pace from 14-9 down their win was never a runaway as reflected by the phase scoring of, 31-24, 22-19, and 36-25.

Byrne was the chief architect of victory having charged into a 16-2 lead then skipping Colin Fraser Davie Ross and David Lawrie to a 30-9 win.

McDougall got off the mark with a five at the fifth end but had to come late from 18-20 to skip Lawson trotter Alistair Wilson and Iain Grant to a 25-20 win over D Murray.

Shearer looked well off the pace at 15-7 down but staged a strong recovery to skip Mark Bonnar Ritchie Templeton and Diz Drysdale to a 20-16 win.

G Bain inflicted a 23-14 defeat on Jim Purdie Ian Drysdale Gary orr and Jim Speirs.

Neil Speirs stepped up his defence of the Singles title at WLIBC with a 21-16 win over Thomas Mann.

It was a tough test for the three times champion but he was making it look easy at 19-4 up but Mann did enjoy a purple patch of 3, 1, 2, 3, 3 before Speirs hit 21 with a double on the 19th end.

Past champion George Sneddon lived dangerously against Paul Sweeney and a real battle saw peels called at 19-19 before Sneds clinched survival with a double on end 22 to celebrate the win.

Calum Logan made progress at the 20-11 expense of Tom Stanton.

However, setbacks for the Wilson clan saw David make a 21-10 exit to Grant Ramsay and son Ewan bow out 20-14 to Ian Drysdale.

Stewart Gibson cashed in on an 11-3 lead to beat Stuart Affleck, 21-15.