Bowls: Cities and Counties contest rolls back into play

AFTER a week's break, the Scottish Cities and Counties championship reconvenes tomorrow with the first of the knock-out matches coming under the hammer.

Aberdeen and Kincardine were the first team out of the draw and they will have home advantage at Newhills against West Fife. Neither team have won the title but A and K did lose in back-to-back finals in 1986 and 1987.

The winner of that match will clash in next week's semi-finals with the winner from the all-Ayrshire clash between the North and South teams at Irvine Park. Both finished their respective qualifying campaign with five wins, with the North team finishing in pole position in the West section and the South team coming second in the South section.

In the opposite half of the draw, East Lothian and Lanarkshire South are the favourites to move through to the semi-finals but will have to fend off the opposition in the shape of Buchan and Renfrewshire West to progress.

East Lothian, who last won the title in 2005 and have since lost in the 2007 and 2009 finals, clash with Buchan at the Deans club in Livingston, while title holders Lanarkshire South, who have won the title three times in the last five years, tackle Renfrew West at St Vincent in Glasgow.

Meanwhile there were mixed results for international players in the Lanarkshire County singles and pairs finals at Hamilton Caledonian, which had to be rescheduled due to last weekend's Home International Series.

Uddingston's Steven McLaren got the better of Blackwood Victoria's Iain McLean 21-17, while Houldsworth brothers Ian and Derek Campbell edged the finishing line 17-15 ahead of Hamilton.