Bowls great Wood helps East Lothian topple Bainfield

Bainfield's spell as clear leaders in the East B section of the indoor bowls Seniors League Cup is over for the time being at least following their crushing 78-45 defeat by chief rivals East Lothian in their top-of-the-table clash at the Hutchison Crossway stadium.

East Lothian, the pre-campaign favourites, now share the 12-point mark with Bainfield but take over at the top thanks to a superior shot margin of 190 to 88. The section play saw East Lothian pile on the pressure from 17-16 up after five ends to lead 42-24 after ten then dominated the next seven ends, 36-21 to clinch a 33-shot victory.

Tom Young didn't shape up as a likely East Lothian winner when trailing 5-0 after two ends however he recovered to cross 13-10 then stepped on the accelerator to skip Jim Neilson, George McLean and Brian Bissett to a 21-10 win over Willie McIntosh, Alex Fisher, Bill Little and Adam Brock. Jim Smith enjoyed a run of 2, 4, 2, 1, 2 to lead 18-2 then coped with the loss of a 5 to skip Tom Taylor, Alex McGarvie and Frankie Gray to a 21-10 win over Ronnie Minto, Irvine Kemp, Bill Kerr and Neil Butters.

John Holmes stood 7-7 after 14 ends but finished 1, 5, 1 to skip Brian Higgins, James Hogg and John Hamilton to a 1-7 win over Jim Cowan, Ian Combe, Tony Abernethy and Mike Marshall.

Willie Wood was in grand form to skip George Marshall, Eric Russell and former Border star Peter Laidlaw to a 22-18 win over Bill Herd, Jim Pearcy Bill Garden and Alan Craig.

Elsewhere, the challenge from Portobello continued to falter with a 69-63 defeat at Tweedbank and they remain on eight points.

Midlothian crushed West Lothian 84-40 at Dalkeith and that result, plus a healthy shot margin bank of 115 puts them in third place, and makes them a danger to East Lothian and Bainfield.