East Lothian IBC have an excellent history in the Seniors indoor bowls Scottish League Cup and have extended their record number of title wins from five to six having scored a commanding 21 shot victory (70-49) over Coatbridge in the 2015 final played at West of Scotland IBC.
Wins on the rinks skipped by Peter Laidlaw, Willie Wood MBE, and Tommy Young combined to give East Lothian a comfort zone supremacy over a battling Coatbridge side that made their presence felt by inflicting a single figure defeat on Jock Brodie. Both teams of veterans had stars of the mainstream of the sport within their ranks and the presence of Willie Wood, Jock Brodie, Brian Bisset, and Peter Laidlaw for East Lothian, and Robert Provan and Willie Harkness for Coatbridge brought an extra dimension of glamour to the final. Authority is the first battle to be won in a final and the pendulum of dominance swung heavily in the direction of East Lothian with the seniors elite of the garden county outscoring the opposition on all of the first nine ends to establish a healthy 27 shot lead (47-20). The 17-end final was just beyond the halfway mark at that stage so there was still a long way to go however EL new they had the silverware firmly in their grip and put up a strong defence of their lead to go on and clinch an impressive victory. Laidlaw and his rink of Lessel Middler, John P Hamilton, and Alastair Russell turned in a five star performance for EL having cashed in on an explosive 3, 4, 3 start to rocket into a 19-2 lead after seven ends against John McLaren. The EL pacesetters were being gradually reined in at 21-14 with three ends to play but Laidlaw and Co finished in a blaze of glory, carding 1, 1, 5 to register a 28-14 success. Wood made his first major impression on the final with a purple patch run of 1, 1, 2, 3 to skip Brian Bisset, Ross MaGuire, and Billy Higgins into an 11-5 lead over Harkness, and the rink remained solid performers to contribute a 20-9 victory. Young passed a late fitness test to take his place as skip to Dave McLeod, Peter Fallen, and Brian (BJ) Smith and the rink made a brilliant start to win eight of the first 11 ends and set up a 13-4 lead en route to a 15-12 win over Jackie Grant. Brodie and his rink of Jim Neilson, Jim McLeod, and Ronnie Douglas landed the major task of holding Provan and did a good hob holding the opposition icon figure to 6-6 after nine ends; but with the match pressures off eventually slipped to a 14-7 defeat.
Midlothian bowlers served up a winning double in Mondays opening play of the British Isles Indoor Bowls Championships being played this week at Stanley in County Durham. Ronnie Duncan and Colin Walker had to go right down to the wire though in their prelim round match against Channel Islands with the Scotland 4Bowl Pairs champions slipping from 15-7 up to 17-16 down before escaping to victory with a double on the final end.
Meanwhile their Dalkeith stadium colleague Stacey Laidlaw as at the rink-side cheering them on with fingers cross with the Scotland Junior Singles Champion having defeated Rachael MacDonald of Channel Islands, 21-7 in her prelim.
Meanwhile Scotland’s women had to settle for the runners-up spot in the Home international Series the final table reading, England 6; Scotland 4, Wales 2, Ireland 0.
The results for Scotland being, Scotland 102 England 137; Scotland 113 Wales 91; Scotland 141 Ireland 87.