EAST LOTHIAN have come from off the pace to capture the second qualifying place behind West Lothian in the East Section of the Scottish Cities & Counties Bowls Championship for the Andrew Hamilton Trophy.
The surprise defeat of chief rivals Edinburgh & Leith made East Lothian's task easier in the end but they had to win their last section match and they did so at the 125-107 expense of West Fife at East Linton.
An opening game defeat from Edinburgh
& Leith and a later one from Midlothian might well have put the 2003 and 2005 national champions out, however, they were the only team to defeat West Lothian.
The pre-match pressure on East Lothian against West Fife was increased with the late call-off of Alex Marshall resulting in a shuffle of the pack with Gary Murray coming in at second and teenager Grant Thomson and Struan Robertson promoted to third and skip respectively.
East Lothian were made to battle hard on all three phases although they did win them 41-36, 48-39 and 36-32 respectively.
The home rinks skipped by Alister Kennedy and Struan Robertson won well while Willie Wood finished peels, but their colleagues Jamie Higgins, Craig Valentine and Derek Oliver all lost.
Kennedy emerged the leader of the pack as he cashed in on an early run of 5, 1, 4, 2, 1 to skip Ian Bell, Gary Murray and Steven Morgan to a 30-12 win over Alan Bernard.
Robertson led 16-2 and went on to skip Glen Blair, Chris Fallen and Grant Thomson to a 24-9 win over Stuart Pagan.
Wood carded a single at the last to skip Jamie Blair, Norrie Cochrane and Steven Thomson to a 20-20 peel with Jim Gilruth while Higgins was edged out 21-19 by Jim Roxburgh.
Valentine lost 23-18 to Paul Brown and Oliver suffered a 22-14 defeat from Robert McFarlane.
Meanwhile, West Lothian were in good form to beat Border 126-106 at Newbridge and so complete their East Section campaign with six wins from seven games.
Wins on the rinks skipped by John Aitken, Grant Logan, Graeme Archer, Thomas Mann and Neil Speirs kept team manager Colin Stein happy though George Sneddon lost.
Border edged the first seven-end phase 48-43 mainly due to Malcolm Thin punishing Sneddon 17-1, however, West Lothian asserted themselves with a 44-23 reply on the second and then consolidated 39-35 on the third.
Sneddon's misery in the company of Stewart McMaster, James Speirs and Alec Allan continued at 19-1 down after nine ends and they came off dispirited 29-14 losers.
Aitken skipped Bryan Cooper, Gerry Duggan and Calum Logan to a 28-10 win over Tommy Mann while Grant Logan skipped Mark Allison, Steven Fleming and Blair Mackie to a 22-12 win over Graeme Forsyth.
Archer beat Robert Crawford 21-18 while Thomas Mann enjoyed a 24-21 win over Stuart White, and Speirs pipped Ian Crawford 17-16.
Midlothian crashed to a 147-91 defeat from Stirling County East.
The full article contains 520 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
