Bowls: West Lothian Triples into semi-finals

Domestic champions West Lothian beat Falkirk, East Fife, Tweedbank and Stirling.

The internationalist trio of Calum Logan, Thomas Mann and Neil Speirs will play Prestwick in the last four with Inverness and Auchinleck the other challengers at Fraserburgh over the weekend of March 30/31.

West Lothian beat Falkirk  19-16 in their preliminary tie at the Meadowmill stadium in East Lothian and then edged a 19-18 thriller against East Fife.

With the play switching to Dalkeith, WL led Tweedbank 11-4, but came under pressure at 14-12. However, with just two ends to play, they showed they can handle such challenges with a 1, 1, finish to win 16-12.

Stirling provided the opposition in the Section final having already conquered Edinburgh club Balbardie’s rink of Graham Keery, David Lawrie and Gary Orr in the second round.

Orr and his front-two had crushed Teviotdale 24-3 in the prelims before adding the 19-11 scalp of Alloa.

They shaped up well enough in the early stages against Stirling to stand 8-8 after nine ends but came under pressure with the loss of four singles and slipped to a 17-10 defeat.

WL trailed 5-3 in the section final against Stirling but went on to win a cracker of a match, 16-12.

n COLIN WALKER’S unsuccessful effort in the World Singles down at Potters meant he had to sacrifice his place in the Midlothian triples competing at Glasgow IBC, but Ronnie Duncan, Willie Rankin and Billy Peacock still made it a strong trio – and they duly made the section final against Auchinleck but were beaten 22-10.

Meanwhile, the much fancied East Lothian trio of Mark Johnston, Willie Wood and Derek Oliver clinched a 14-10 win over Jamie Reid, Chris Steven and Andrew Caldwell of Portobello in the prelim round, but a  ding-dong battle against John Carswell of Ardrossan saw EL then lose 16-15.