Commonwealth Games bowls: Six out of six for Scots

Scotland Skip Margaret Latham congratulates Claire Johnston. Picture: TSPL

Darren Burnett came through his singles match against Guernsey’s Matt le Ber 21-12. He trailed 5-7 but counted eleven straight shot to go 16-7 up at fourteen ends, and only dropped three of the next seven ends before a single on the twenty first end got him home.

Burnett has three matches today, taking on second and third placed Zambia and Namibia followed by South Africa, and depending on other results, will need to win two of these matches to be sure of a knock-out berth.

Burnett said: “That was a big win for me because I have three games today and that’s a big ask particularly as two of my opponents – Zambia and Namibia are in contention. I finish my section against South Africa’s Bobby Donnelly who won the Singles title at Manchester in 2002. He’s had a disastrous singles campaign, only winning one match from four and is out of the event. However, he’s just skipped his triples team to gold so I know what he’s capable of.”

In the fours, David Peacock, Neil Speirs, Paul Foster and Alex Marshall looked like suffering an embarrassing defeat to Fiji when they trailed 11-0 after just four ends and then 12-3 after six, but they regrouped and came good over the closing stages to win 17-15. They are in second place, equal on points with Wales.

In the women’s events Claire Johnston, Lauren Baillie and Margaret Letham put themselves in the box seat in Section C of the triples by winning 19-11 against Donna McCloy’s Northern Irish rink.

Rivals England, who won bronze at the last Games in Delhi, crashed 14-20 to Papua New Guinea and Scotland lead the section with six points

“We’re in the driving seat and after beating Northern Ireland and we’ll be going for a win against England, we can’t be complacent,” said Letham.

In the pairs, Lorraine Malloy and Caroline Brown drew 21-21 with Zambia. They led 16-7 after eleven ends but Zambia turned over thirteen shots over the next four ends to trail 20-16. The Scots responded with a 3 and 2, but a single to Zambia on the last saw them share the points.

They are in second place in their section, two points behind Norfolk Island with Australia, New Zealand and Canada leading the other sections.

Two wins for Billy Allan, Michael Simpson and Kevin Wallace yesterday saw them move through to today’s semi-finals of the Para Sport Open Triples where a 16-8 win over Wales coupled with a grandstand 4 and 2 finish saw them win 22-14 to finish in top spot in their section ahead of England. South Africa won the other group ahead of New Zealand but everyone is waiting to see who they play in the semis, with the draw scheduled for today at 2.45pm.