Commonwealth Games bowls: Scots keep Saltire flying

IT WAS a day of mixed emotions for Team Scotland at Kelvingrove yesterday as the men continued their challenge to the knock-out stages of the singles and fours while the women lost in the quarter-final of the triples, they missed out on a knock-out berth in the pairs and the Para Sport triple lost their semi-final exchange and will now contest bronze.

Darren Burnett lost his table topping clash with Willem Erasmun Esterhuizen 21-19. Picture: TSPL

In the singles, Darren Burnett finished his section in pole position but there were some anxious moments after he lost his first match of the day to Namibia’s Willem Erasmus Esterhuizen 21-19. However he pushed through in the next two, beating Harry Musonda from Zambia 21-11 and then a 21-6 win over 2002 champion Bobby Donnelly from South Africa gave him a top spot finish with Zambia taking the runners-up position.

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In the first of today’s knock-out singles Burnett meets Northern Ireland’s Martin McHugh and in the same half Australia’s Aron Sherriff takes on Malaysia’s Hizlee Rais.

Ryan Bester from Canada meets Zambia and Shannon McIlroy from New Zealand takes on England’s Sam Tolchard.

Defending champion Robert Weale missed out in his section to Australia and England, losing to both players.

Alex Marshall skipped David Peacock, Neil Speirs and Paul Foster to a hard-fought 12-9 win over Wales. The topped their section unbeaten and now meet South Africa in the quarter-finals for a semi-final berth against either Australia or Wales.

India meet Norfolk Islands and England clash with Northern Ireland for the other semi-final place.

Margaret Letham and her rink of Claire Johnston and Lauren Baillie lost their final group table topping match to England and were drawn against South Africa in the quarter-finals.

They held a favourable 9-7 lead at seven ends, but never troubled the scoreboard again until the last end as the Sprinboks reeled off 12 shots in a row and they were content to drop a treble on the last to win 21-12 to set up a semi-final head-to-head against Australia.

Australia beat Fiji 25-8, while Wales had to go to an extra end to halt New Zealand’s challenge 14-13 while England enjoyed a 24-6 win against Malaysia.

After losing to the last bowl and failing to make it to the knock-out stages in the fours, lady luck deserted the women at the same stage of the pairs.

Lorraine Malloy and Caroline Brown held a drawn 12-12 result for the one point that they needed to move through but with the last bowl of the match South African skip Colleen Piketh played into the head, caught the Scots bowl and managed to secure a double and the vital three shots they needed to stay in medal contention and leave the Scots reeling.

The draw for the knock-out stages sees South Africa meeting Wales and Australia taking on Jersey. New Zealand and Northern Ireland also meet, with Norfolk Islands and England completing the line up.

In the Para Sport Open triples, Billy Allan, Michael Simpson and Kevin Wallace lost their semi-final match to New Zealand 13-9 with the Kiwis finishing strongly over the last three ends. They meet South Africa in the gold medal play-off. South Africa beat England 15-9.

SEE ALSO

• The Scotsman Commonwealth Games live discussions

• Medal table: What medals have Team Scotland won?