Bowls: Scots sweat in the heat as leading places elude them

IT was a second day of sweltering heat in New Delhi with temperatures once again over 100F and a bag of mixed results all round, but Scotland's bowlers are confident of making it through to the knock-out stages of all six events in the Eight Nation Invitation Test Series at the national Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium Bowling Complex.

Yesterday, the Scots only managed one win from their six matches in the men's championships thanks to West Lothian's Neil Speirs and Darren Burnett from Arbroath in the pairs when they beat South African 12-4, 6-6. Earlier in the day, they lost their third match on the trot on the last end of the tie break, this time to Northern Ireland 7-11, 17-8, 2-1.

It was also a disappointing day in the singles and triples with tie-breaks causing further grief for the Scots.

In the singles, Northern Ireland's Gary Kelly halted the winning streak of East Lothian's Paul Foster 8-9, 10-3, 2-1 in a high-quality exchange, but in his second match of the day against world champion Safaun Said from Malaysia, Foster found the going frustrating on a tricky outside rink and he lost 11-4, 6-6.

The triples of Wayne Hogg, Willie Wood and skip David Peacock also suffered at the hands of the dreaded shoot-out, foiled on the last end of both tie-breaks against Commonwealth champions Australia and New Zealand.

The women struck four wins from their six matches, with the success story continuing for the women's pairs of Caroline Brown and Margaret Letham. The Lanarkshire duo remain unbeaten and haven't dropped a set to date – adding the scalps of England and South Africa yesterday.

Midlothian's Agnes Melrose and Lauren Baillie from East Lothian, with East Fife's Lynn Stein at lead, had a comfortable third-round win over England but failed to dent the Kiwi challenge, going down 10-3, 14-6.

With three rounds of matches remaining before the knock-out stages are decided, the Scots sit in fourth place in the singles and triples and sixth in the pairs of the men's events, and in the women's they are two points clear on the field in the pairs, fourth in the singles and fifth in the triples.