THE NATIONAL indoor bowls limelight focuses on East Lothian this weekend with the finals of several Scottish Championships being staged at the Meadowmill stadium near Tranent and featuring a number of strong West and Midlothian players.
The championship titles up for grabs are the Singles, Junior Singles and 2-Bowl Pairs in both the ladies and men's events with the semi-finals tomorrow and the finals on Sunday.
The semi-finals of the men's singles throws up a major confrontation
of local interest between Neil Speirs of West Lothian and Scott Briggs of Midlothian.
Speirs enjoys the higher profile thanks to his international caps and is a Scottish and British Isles 4-Bowl Pairs champion, however, form counts for little on the day and Briggs is certainly a noted talent from the competitive Midlothian camp.
The clash takes place in the 11.30am session tomorrow and the winner will then tackle Stewart Anderson of Auchinleck or the lesser-known Cameron Wilson of Galleon who go head to head at 4pm.
Midlothian also have an interest in the 2-Bowl Pairs in the shape of full cap Ronnie Duncan and Martin Wyllie who have their hands full in a semi-final challenge on the 9.30am session against Andrew Barker and Graeme Donaldson of Elgin.
The other Pairs semi-final features likely title favourites Alex Kelly and Iain McLean of Blantyre against Stuart Sloan and Alan Bell of Whiteinch at 2pm.
Andrew Barker has a hectic schedule as the junior cap from Elgin also competes for the Under-25 singles title and faces a hot potato in the shape of highly-rated Mark Kelsey of West of Scotland (2pm).
Steven Allan of Alloa lines up in the first semi-final at 9.30am against Brian Irvine of Blantyre.
Wendy Purdie has gained an army of fans from her exploits at Bainfield and now West Lothian and the holder of the ladies Singles title continues her defence of that crown against Jane Brooksby of Falkirk.
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