West Lothian give rivals a clean sweep on the carpet

WEST LOTHIAN launched their campaign in the B section of the indoor bowls premier league with a commanding three-phase 39-shot victory over promoted East Fife at the Inveralmond stadium, Livingston.

Some powerful performances resulted in wins for the rinks skipped by Graeme Archer, Mark Allison and Thomas Mann, however there was a heavy defeat for Neil Speirs.

His defeat by 18 shots was an astonishing margin for the international star, who was playing on his home carpet and, to rub salt into his wounds, the opponent dishing out the punishment was fellow cap Wayne Hogg.

It was Hogg's debut for the Fifers having transferred from East Lothian and he certainly marked it in great style, skipping his rink into an astonishing 29-2 lead before settling for a 31-13 triumph over Cameron Greer, Ray Logan, Ricky Forrest and the shell-shocked Speirs.

East Fife never looked like cashing in on the opportunity given to them by Hogg's dominance, however, and West Lothian won all three seven-end phases albeit the first one was fiercely contested at 28-27. West Lothian won the second phase 35-22 with Archer leading the attack with a 16-1 victory and then the home side increased its hold on the match with a 42-17 domination of the run-in.

In percentage terms, West Lothian won the 84-end count 60/40 with Archer coming out the top performer with a ratio of 71/29. Allison was 67/33, Mann 57/43 and Speirs 43/57.

Archer started well to skip Ewan Wilson (debut), Des Hagart and George Sneddon into a 14-4 lead after 11 ends then enjoyed a purple patch spell of 3, 4, 1, 3, 1 to stand 26-4 up before beating G Livingston handsomely, 34-9.

Allison led 9-1 after five ends and skipped David Brown, James Speirs and Stuart Johnston to 15-3 after ten ends then, from 21-8, added a flying finish of 2, 3, 3, 2 to beat Gary Mackie, 31-8.

Mann, just recently crowned champion of his outdoor club Newbridge, bounced back from an 8-0 deficit to cross 17-8 then included a late count of five as he skipped James Greenock, David Wilson and Calum Logan to a 22-18 win over C Falconer.

"The extent of Neil's (Speirs) defeat was a shock to our system but the team coped with it extremely well and this sizeable win is an encouraging start to our campaign," summed up a spokesman for West Lothian.