Midlothian IBC brings down the curtain on 2018 by staging their annual end of year Open Triples Spectacular at the Dalkeith Stadium today.
Read MoreThe galaxy of personality pre-draw Pot No1 figures set to parade their skills in an exciting and entertaining fashion include No 2 seed Alex Marshall MBE who skips Steven Morgan and Tatties fellow world stage super star Paul Foster MBE.
The hot pot trio of 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medal winners Ronnie Duncan, Derek Oliver, and Darren Burnett are the No3 seeds while rated No4 is the triple of Trevor Taylor, Scott Kennedy, and Billy Mellors.
Pot No 3 is headed by the legendary Willie Wood MBE who skips his East Lothian colleagues David Sked and former World Under 25 champion Joe Mower while the strongest of female power is represented by Sandra McLeish, Stacey McDougall, and Julie Forrest. David Rattray skips namesakes Richard and Peter, while internationalist Jamie Higgins of East Lothian plus his yet to be named front two complete the Pot.
The four winning qualifiers that made it into Pot 2 are the trios of Gary Thomson; Daniel McDougall; Roy Borthwick, and Jack Macnab while Pot 4 comprises the runners up trios of John Tennant; Mark Yuill; Matt Osbourne; and David Bailley. Play gets underway at 11am with the Draw producing the following the following sections.
Section 1. David Peacock; Gary Thomson; Jamie Higgins; Matt Osborne.
Section 2. Alex Marshall MBE; Jack Macnab; Richard Rattray; David Bailley.
Section 3. Darren Burnett; Daniel McDougall; Willie Wood MBE; John Tennant.
Rink 4. Billy Mellors; Roy Bothwick; Stacey McDougall; Mark Yuill.
West Lothian IBC have achieved an end of year high with the international experienced partnership of Cameron Greer and Calum Logan carrying the club banner into the Last Four stage of the Gents National Four Bowl Pairs Championship. Rattling up four wins on the trot to dominate their qualifying section at West of Scotland the WL champs opened up the pathway towards the prospect title glory with a 26-16 prelim round win over Kris Storf (ex Parkside) and Glen Morton of Alloa. The follow on performance was a commanding 21-10 win over Cowal then a nail biting climax saw them edge an 18-17 thriller over East Fife to set up a sectional final against two Falkirk hot pots in Martin McCalley and Steven Glen, ex East Lothian.
West Lothians battling 17-14 victory takes them through to a semi final match against Steven Dudgeon and Graeme Peacock of Galleon at Arbroath on Saturday March 30. The opposite semi final features Graeme Donaldson and Andrew Barker of Elgin against Stuart Pagan and Paul Brown of Abbeyview.
Bainfield duo Robert White and James Hogg made encouraging progress with wins over Coatbridge (25-22) and Tweedbank (22-19) at West Lothian but suffered a 25-16 defeat at the hands of Abbeyview in the section final. Abbeyview had also sentenced East Lothians Mark Johnston and Willie Wood MBE to a 20-17 first round exit while the Balbardie duo of Kevin Scott and Ewan Shearer lost 23-15 to Tweedbank. The fancied Midlothian partnership of Billy Peacock and Colin Walker made a disappointing 20-15 exit to Charles Smith and James Fernie of East fife in the prelim round at West of Scotland.
Wins over Perth (24-17); Tweedbank (21-6); and Coatbridge (25-7); saw holders and three times champions Sharon Leitch and Lorraine Craig carry the Balbardie IBC banner into the semi finals of the Womans Pairs .
Stewart Meikle would like to wish all a Happy New Year.