Bowls: West Lothian ladies take centre stage

WHILST West Lothian bowls quartet Irene Taylor, Jennifer Sneddon, Angela Uttley and skip Wendy Purdie enjoyed a 24-11 stroll against England's Barbara Bellamy, Terri Kennard, Ruth Rogers and Sian Gordon to set up their tilt at the Women's British Isles fours title at the Dewars Centre in Perth, Bainfield failed to further their cause in the men's triples.

Craig Paterson, Craig Moss and skip Paul O'Donnell failed to fire on all cylinders against the strong Jersey combination of Lee Nixon, John Lowery and Cyril Renouf and only scored on five ends before throwing in the towel on the 16th end, trailing 21-6.

The other disappointment for the Scots came in the fours, with Elgin's Norman and Andy Barker, Graeme Donaldson and Mike Stepney storming back from 18-10 down to be one off the pace playing the last. However they failed to maintain the momentum and dropped a double on a replayed last end to lose out 20-17.

Along with West Lothian, the women also came through in the principal and junior singles semi-finals with Teviotdale ace Julie Forrest beating Ireland's Muriel Wilkinson 21-12, while Ardrossan's Michelle Cooper held off a determined fightback from Lianna Bichard from the Channel Islands before winning 21-15.

These results set Scotland up for six of the eleven finals that get underway today with the men's and women's sharing three title-deciders each.

Ireland will provide the opposition in each final for the men with Elgin's Mike Stepney taking on Ian McClure for the blue riband singles crown. Patrick Burns will be out to halt a third successive British title for Auchinleck's Stewart Anderson and Irish team manager Roy McCune will skip his rink against Falkirk in the Senior Fours.

In the women's championships Forrest, who last claimed this title in 2004, comes up against the Channel Island challenge of Lucy Beere while Cooper takes on England's Amy Stanton and West Lothian will line up against Betty Morgan's rink from Wales.