Bowls: East Lothian into Scottish Cup semis

Their latest success saw them engaged in an epic quarter-final battle against fellow five times cup winners West Lothian at Falkirk with the ‘garden county’ team emerging with a thrilling 70-53 victory over the recently crowned champions of the  Premier League.

East Lothian now face yet  another testing challenge in their bid to etch their name on the Scottish Cup for a record sixth time as their semi-final opposition is against next door neighbours Midlothian at Livingston on Saturday, March 23.

“We accepted that West  Lothian are the team of the  moment but, with Alex  Marshall back on duty for us, we travelled with a positive mindset,” said Scott Kennedy.

“It is no surprise that the  entire match was fought out on a tightrope.”

It was indeed a magnificent performance for East Lothian, with the rinks skipped by Kennedy, Billy Mellors, Alex Marshall and Derek Oliver ending up undefeated against Mark Allison, Calum Logan, Neil Speirs and Thomas Mann.

Kennedy and his rink of Alan Young, Gary Darling and Jamie Higgins, stayed mentally strong to stay ahead of Paul Lynas, Stuart Johnston, Jamie Gracie and Allison and win by three shots. A second battle royal that went right down to the wire saw Mellors skip Gary Muir, Jamie Gordon and Andrew Jeffrey to a similar three-shot victory over James Greenock, Blair Mackie, George Sneddon and Logan.

Marshall, the five times world champion, skipped Mark  Johnston, Dougie Berwick and fellow legend Willie Wood to a single-shot victory over Bryan Cooper, Raymond Logan, Des Hagart and Speirs.

West Lothian’s rink of  Cameron Greer, Ian Drysdale, James Speirs and Mann had to settle for a peel against Ewan Fallen, Stuart Thomson,  Graham Robertson and Oliver.

The other quarter-final saw Dunfermline club Abbeyview beat Arbroath 98-68 and Stirling deal an 81-72 exit to Dundee with the reward of meeting in the semi-final which is being staged at Cumbernauld.

The final is at Aberdeen on  Saturday, April 6.