West Lothian gents gifted their club some festive season cheer with an away victory – albeit uncomfortably narrow – over West of Scotland that created a 4 point buffer against then being sucked into the relegation zone of A section of the Premier League.
Read MoreMoss was the hero figure as he skipped Jamie Aitken, Scott McMaster, and Cameron Greer to a tremendous 27-9 win over home skip personality figure Jonathan Ross. Allison was much harder pressed to skip Connor McKendrick, Raymond Logan, and Gary Orr to a supporting 18-15 win over D Greig. Mann and his front-three of David Wilson, Graeme Lees, and George Sneddon came close to giving WL a third winning rink but were edged out 24-22 by G MacDougall.
WOS were however rampant against Jim Speirs, Ian Drysdale, Bryan Cooper, and Calum Logan and the home rink skipped by S O’Donnell dished out a 28-14 punishment to the under pressure visitors. The 2 points banked by WL in game seven of the 10 match programme were worth their weight in gold as it pushed the stars of the Inveralmond Stadium 4 points clear of their second from bottom victims and 8 clear of Fraserburgh. The cost of defeat would have been an anxious climax in the New Year with the set of challenging fixtures reading away to Ardrossan, at home to Falkirk, and at home to Midlothian.
Meanwhile the gents of Balbardie IBC continue to suffer hard times and sit foot of the table in Division 1B following their latest defeat (87-65) – sixth in seven – on their away visit to Tweedbank. Balbardie enter the New Year 2 points adrift of Paisley and 4 adrift of East Kilbride but there is a glimpse of survival hope from a run in that starts at home to EK, then away to Galleon, and finishing at home to Paisley.
West Lothian ladies finished 2019 on a high with a thumping 79-49 win at home to Tweedbank that sees them enter the New Year as the table-toppers in Division 1 East. Wins on all three rinks reflects a strong team performance that saw Wendy Purdie lead the victory charge by skipping Sandra Purdie, Evelyn Barclay, and Liz Boyle to a 34-13 win highlighted by a late run of 1, 5, 2, 5, 1 ,2 against Jackie Ormiston. Jennifer Sneddon produced a phenomenal recovery from 14-0 down after nine ends to skip Betty Tate, Erin Fraser, and Anne Muirhead to a 23-18 win over Pat Houston that included an inspired run of 5, 3, 6, 1, 2. Lisa Brogan slipped from 8-4 up to 17-8 down but a strong recovery of 1, 1, (1), 3, 3, 6 saw her skip I Brown, A Brown, and J Brown to a 22-18 win over Lauren Gregg.
West Lothian Seniors sit mid table in their East A section having made it 5 wins out of 10 with a commendable 64-47 away win over higher placed rivals Bainfield. George Sneddon led the way, skipping George Clark, Ian McGill, and David Boyd to a 21-11 win over S Wilson. Supporting wins were contributed by Duncan Lawson and Ian Robertson while Joe McMillan went down by 4 shots.
Meanwhile, Balbardie Seniors suffered their eighth defeat in 11 going down to a heavy 102-48 defeat away to second from top Midlothian in the East B League.