Bowls: Speirs and Co into final of British Isles Championships

Neil SPEIRS leads his West Lothian rink of Bryan Cooper, James Speirs and Tommy Mann into the Fours final of the British Isles Bowls Championships at Swansea later today.

Speirs and Co didn’t have to throw a bowl to reach the final, however, after the English rink skipped by Stuart Airey had to scratch after running out of substitution options, leaving the Livingston quartet to meet the strong Channel Island four skipped by Tommy Greechan.

Scotland will have an interest in six of the 11 title deciders with the men also going for gold in the singles and triples while the women line up in the singles, junior singles and fours.

Blantyre’s Iain McLean worked his passage into two finals – both at the expense of England. In the singles, he took the scalp of WBT world No. 1 Greg Harlow 21-9, while in the triples, with clubmates Craig Irvine and Graeme Higgins, he helped nose a 17-16 win over the English.

Mark McPeak from Ireland will provide McLean’s opposition in the singles while in the triples the Scots will line up against the host nation.

In the women’s singles final, East Fife’s Lynn Stein will take on Alison Merrien of the Channel Islands while clubmate Lesley Gordon faces Amy Williams of Wales, in the junior event.

Whiteinch complete the Scottish challenge in the women’s fours with Lorna Cameron’s rink hoping to win the title at the expense of the Channel Islands.