Bowls: West Lothian crush eastern foes to reach knockout final

New Year Cheer has come quickly to the Inveralmond Stadium at Livingston, with West Lothian IBC clinching their place in the knockout final of the indoor bowls Premier League ahead of schedule.

A double whammy for the A section leaders at the weekend saw West Lothian produce the goods to score a commanding 29-shot home win over East Lothian in the penultimate fixture, then receive a major bonus with the defeat of Blantyre at Alloa.

Whilst West Lothian came into Saturday’s match holding a two-point lead over Blantyre, they were conscious of a menacing scenario, with their section rivals away to foot-of-the table Alloa followed by a top-of-the table clash.

Blantyre are immensely strong at home and are undefeated this campaign, making them favourites to pip West Lothian at the post in an exciting climax. However, they blew that opportunity with a surprise 93-73 defeat from Alloa.

Surprise rather than shock, because although Alloa prop up the table – and continue to do so and are favourites for the drop – they perform well at home, having lost only by a few shots to West Lothian and East Lothian while beating Prestwick.

So West Lothian’s clash against an out-of-contention East Lothian was a must-win match for them, and the pre-match odds were tipped in their favour by the visitors opting for a slightly experimental line-up.

Star player Alex Marshall was an absentee, however East Lothian still represented a serious danger with four strong skips in the shape of Willie Wood, Scott Kennedy, Derek Oliver and Graham Robertson.

West Lothian brought in club champion George Sneddon and Jamie Gracie.

Wins for the rinks skipped by Mark Allison and team captain Thomas Mann was enough to carry the day for a home team effort that saw Neil Speirs and Sneddon suffer narrow defeats.

Mann played the leading role for WL as he skipped James Greenock, Ian Drysdale and James Speirs to a 25-1 blitz on Oliver over the first 11 ends then on to a 33-10 victory.

Allison built on an opening run of 5, 1, 2 to lead 15-6 after 11 ends then he skipped Paul Lynas, Raymond Logan, and Stuart Johnston to a 25-14 win over Wood.

Speirs was against the collar in a 22-19 defeat from Robertson while Sneddon recovered from 10-4 down to cross 16-12 but lost 21-19 to Kennedy.