Bowls: Porty power through the playdown action

Published on Tuesday 27 October 2009 08:46

PORTOBELLO'S bowlers enjoyed a good run in the playdown action of the Seniors National Knockout Fours with the rink of Eddie Tomany, Ronnie Andrews, Ronnie Douglas and Tony McLaren reaching the last 16.

McLaren and Co blitzed Balbardie 32-5 then East Lothian 22-6 to set up a clash against Alloa when the event continues this Sunday.

Bainfield also remain in contention for the title with Bill Little walking over against East Fife then skipping his rink to a 19-8 victory over an Abbeyview opposition that had dealt a 20-6 exit to Bill Ballantyne of Midlothian.

West Lothian made a 16-14 exit to Ayr in the preliminary round and they in turn lost to Headwell who now provide the opposition to Bainfield.

West Lothian, meanwhile, continued their impressive start to the indoor season with a 91-70 away victory over Arbroath that saw them complete a hat-trick of wins in the A section of the Premier League.

Arbroath had lead figure Darren Burnett missing from their line-up while West Lothian welcomed full cap Thomas Mann for his seasonal debut.

Mann came in at third to former cap Joey Strickland with Richard Mark and Raymond Logan, but the rink suffered a double-figure defeat. West Lothian also saw Neil Speirs pipped at the post but the valuable match points were rescued by good wins for the rinks skipped by Mark Alison and George Sneddon.

The visitors shrugged off a 13-7 deficit for Strickland to edge the first seven-end phase, 34-29 but Arbroath kept the match on a knife-edge with a 29-24 reply on the second and then a big step in gear saw West Lothian motor to a 33-12 success on the third.

Allison was the best performer, winning the end count 13-8 and skipping Bryan Cooper, Ian Laverie and Calum Logan to a 30-10 victory over Peter Carnegie.

The trend of their inspiring success was a scoring run of 2, 3, 2, (1), 2 and 4 that thrust them into a 17-7 lead after 12 ends then they finished with a 6 and 3.

Sneddon blazed a 19-5 trail after nine ends as he skipped Cameron Greer, David Wilson and Stuart Johnston on two short sharp runs of 5, 4, 1 and 1, 2, 6 then a strong finish of 2, 3, 2, 1 saw them wrap up a 29-15 win over Peter Strachan.

Speirs made a strong start to skip Paul Lynas, Des Hagart and James Speirs into a 10-5 lead over George Stewart but lean times followed and although their losses weren't heavy they were edged out 17-16.

Strickland and Co conceded a 5 at the first end and trailed 13-6 after six ends then life became even tougher as they were put through the mill and crushed 28-16 by Andrew Furye.