West Lothian gents remain in the relegation zone of the indoor bowls A Division of the Premier League despite the recent three-in-row national champions showing improved form to defeat Arbroath by 24 shots (90-66) at Livingston.
Read MoreWith five current caps and several more high profile support players in their ranks a home win against their foot of the table opposition was the predicted outcome, and its delivery expected to move West Lothian into safe territory with just one more fixture to fulfil. However a tale of the unexpected emerged from Dalkeith where fellow strugglers Lanarkshire’s win over joint leaders Midlothian was bad news for a West Lothian team due to end it league campaign with a tough lions den visit to Blantyre.
The surprise defeat of Midlothian saw Blantyre secure the A Division honours with a 93-62 away win over Paisley but even with that relaxation of pressure the playoff qualifiers are hard pushed to remember the last time they lost a home match. The West Lothian defeat of Arbroath sentenced the victims to automatic relegation but the Livingston based club now enter their final fixture sharing the same six point mark with second bottom Lanarkshire rivals that face better win prospects albeit away to last seasons champions, Paisley.
Wins on the rinks skipped by team captain Thomas Mann, Calum Logan, and Neil Speirs comfortably covered the defeat of Mark Allison and delivered West Lothian a third win in nine – a depressing statistic for a star-studded team. The match was a lifeline seeking preservation of their premier league status for the home team but an uninspired opening saw them hard pushed to scramble a six shot capture (30-24) of the first even-end phase. Logan’s 15-7 contribution on the second phase was pivotal to a stumbling WL effort being transformed into a 33-24 advantage and the youngest of the four home skips shored up a 27-18 success on the third with an 8-1 contribution.
Mann produced a captain courageous performance to skip Craig Moss, Grant Knox, and James Speirs to a 28-14 win over Sandy Pirie that was highlighted by a purple patch spell of 4, 1, 1, 2, (1), 2, (1), 5 and accelerated the score from 11-10 to 26-12. Logan recovered strongly from 5-8 to 24-15 and skipped Cameron Greer, Raymond Logan, and Des Hagart to a 28-16 win over Drew Garvie. Speirs led 13-5 and skipped Bryan Cooper, Dougie Mitchell, and Paul O’Donnel to a 20-15 win over Paul Carnegie. Allison suffered a 21-14 defeat from Andy Furye.