East Lothian world stage icon figure Alex ‘Tattie’ Marshall MBE will team up with ex garden county teammate and good friend Paul Foster MBE as they bid to win the World Indoor Pairs title for a remarkable fourth time.
Read MoreThe Pairs is the opening event of a two-week festival of world-class bowls at Potters Leisure Resort in Hopton-on-Sea, from January 13-29, which also includes the World Indoor Singles, Ladies World Matchplay Singles, World Mixed Pairs Championship and World Under 25 Singles.
The multi-talented Scottish pairing play their opening match on the famous portable rink at Potters on Saturday at approximately 3.30pm and will probably face the experienced pairing of Jason Greenslade and Les Gillett assuming they overcome an inexperienced overseas pairing in their opening match. Marshall is also involved in this year’s Mixed Pairs event and for the first time he teams up with England’s Katy Smith. The newly formed pairing has a tough looking opening round clash next Friday (January 20) afternoon against the very talented England/Scotland pairing of Nick Brett and Claire Johnstone.
The East Lothian challenge at last weekend’s national indoor bowling finals unfortunately failed to shine, with both Dougie Berwick and Kim Hoggan losing out in the semi-final action staged at West Lothian IBC. Berwick lost out 21-5 in the gent’s singles to former national under 25 singles champion Martin Williamson of Ardrossan. The tone of the match was set early on with Williamson winning four of the first five ends to lead 8-2. He then scored a further eight singles over the next ten ends to lead 16 shots to 5 and a run of 2, 2 and 1 completed the result for the outstanding Ayrshire man. In the ladies junior singles Hoggan started slowly and failed to recover in a 21-12 defeat to Carla Banks of Garioch. Banks started very well and built up a 11-3 lead before Hoggan won three consecutive ends to narrow the gap to 7-11. Banks managed to keep that four-shot lead and progressed to 14-10 ahead before a run of 1, 1, 2, 2 put her on the brink at 20-10 and two ends later she completed her win.
The men’s side from East Lothian IBC is back in Scottish Premier League action on Saturday when they welcome Paisley to the Alex Marshall Arena (2pm). Going into the final three fixtures the garden county have a two-point advantage over the chasing pack and are in pole position to grab the top of the table honours in the highly competitive B section. “We are in a great position to win the section as two of our remaining three games are at home but we must remain focused and make sure we get the job done”, said team captain Graham Robertson. Robertson would like to have been at full strength but current World Indoor Under 25 champion Joe Mower is unavailable while icon figure Alex Marshall also misses out due to his involvement at the World Indoor Championships. Veteran campaigner Willie Wood MBE steps up to fill the shoes of Mower while stalwart figure Andy Burt is a recall. The team reads: – A.Jeffrey, D.Riva, D.Berwick, S.Kennedy skip M.Johnston, A.Burt, W.W.Wood MBE, G.Robertson skip/capt C.Darling, L.Betts, G.Blair, B.Mellors skip R.Thomson, S.W.Thomson, J.Higgins, D.Oliver skip
The ladies side also return to national league action on Saturday and the current second placed side in the East Premier Division of the Scottish Ladies Leagues face a tough test over in Methil against third placed East Fife in their penultimate fixture of their campaign. Team manager Sheena Currie has announced the following line-up: M.Murray, J.Russell, M.Kivlin, E.Logan skip J.McFarlane, M.Hamilton, N.McNeil, Y.Veitch skip M.Devine, C.Ward, G.Mackintosh, L.Baillie skip B.Riva, R.Campbell, M.Thomson, A.Irvine skip
It has been confirmed that the talented senior side will face the winners of the East A section in the national knockout quarter-final stage at West Lothian IBC in Livingston on Wednesday (January 18). Meanwhile a senior side were due to be Central District Top Six first round action on Wednesday when they lined-up against Lanarkshire at Balbardie IBC. The garden county challenge was being spearheaded by John P Hamilton in the singles while it was Ross Maguire and Jim Robertson in the pairs and in the triples Billy Higgins, George Gray and Ronnie Douglas. Also in the event the game scheduled to be staged today (Thursday) at East Lothian IBC between Abbeyview and Berwickshire was postponed and rescheduled for Thursday January 19 on the 4-6pm session.
The opening week of action in the Jock Brodie Senior Championships took place last Wednesday at the Alex Marshall Arena and East Lothian got off to a winning start thanks to a 6-2 points win over Bainfield while in the all Dunfermline derby clash between Headwell and Abbeyview it was the latter who emerged victorious with a hard fought 5-3 win. Further games in this event are scheduled for this coming Wednesday (January 18) when Headwell will be returning and will face Perth while West Lothian will take on Tweedbank and on Wednesday January 25 Teviotdale will play Bainfield and Midlothian will be up against Berwickshire.
Huge congratulations to local young star Dean Riva after he recently captured the East Lothian IBC Under 18 Open Singles title. Riva came back from 13-3 down against Stephen Lowrie of Glasgow to win a high-quality final, 16-15. The club would like to thank tournament sponsors Mums Catering for their continued support. The East Lothian young contingent of Megan Kivlin, Craig Mackintosh, David Young and Lewis Betts head to Abbeyview IBC in Dunfermline on Sunday to participate in the SYIBA Under 17 trial match which the action getting underway at 12 noon.
Current national outdoor singles title holder Derek Oliver produced his renowned range of skills in spectacular fashion to skip East Lothian teammates Jamie Gordon and Jamie Higgins to the £600.00 champion prize in the hotly contested Invitation Triples event sponsored by M & F Funeral Services at Midlothian IBC last Saturday.
Finally, East Lothian Indoor Bowling Club are staging a Bowls ‘N’ Burn Night on Saturday January 28 from 6pm till late. Tickets for the event are now on sale from bar or canteen at the club and are priced at £12.00 for bowls, meal and entertainment or £10.00 for entertainment and meal only. Following the bowls from 6-8pm the Haggis will be piped in followed by speeches, meal and then entertainment from the Fiona Matheson Dancers and Brighter Lites Discos.
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