Bowls: EL star Wood helps to turf out Turriff

First Division club Turriff did have the measure of their  Premier League opponents on one rink, however East Lothian were sufficiently rampant on the other three to win at Forfar.

Victories on the rinks skipped by Willie Wood, Derek Oliver and Scott Kennedy compensated for the narrow setback  suffered by Billy Mellors.

Wood made the outstanding contribution with the 74-year-old legend of the sport quick out of the blocks to power Mark Johnston, Stevie Thomson and Dougie Berwick into a 12-5 lead after ten ends before finishing even stronger to beat David  Anderson, 23-10.

Oliver produced an early boost to morale with a strong opening four ends to lead 7-0 then remained well in command to skip Alan Young, Stewart Thomson and team captain Graham Robertson to a 23-14 win over Gary Barclay.

Kennedy zipped into a 10-4 lead, but came under pressure when crossed 11-10. However a 3 at the next saw him skip Kieran Simmants, Gary Darling and Jamie Higgins to a 25-16 win.

Mellors soon found he had his hands full against an inspired Turriff skip in Mark Thurston but skipped Gary Muir, Jamie Gordon and Andrew Jeffrey to 13-13 after 11 ends before  slipping to a 24-19 defeat.

Meanwhile, defending champion Thomas Mann is through to the semi-finals of his club Singles title at West Lothian IBC following a 21-10 win over fellow cap Cameron Greer.

Bryan Cooper was in his ‘Super Cooper’ mode, scoring  21-15 victory over Mark Allison in 18 ends in his quarter-final while Neil Speirs is obviously fired up to add to his previous  title triumphs and blazed a 21-4 trail to claim the luckless  Richard Mark as his victim in a  super-quick ten ends.

Paul Lynas is due to meet Scott McMaster in the remaining quarter-final, with the winner going on to tackle Speirs, leaving Mann facing Cooper in the other semi-final.