East Lothian gents have a strong record of success in the indoor bowls Scottish Cup with five title celebrations over the past 10 seasons and the stars from ‘the garden county’ hope to stay on track for a sixth by winning today’s second round match against Paisley at neutral venue Cumbernauld.
Read MoreBoth clubs enjoy premier league status and Paisley were last season’s national league champions so present a tough challenge for an East Lothian team that promised much but failed to deliver in this season’s campaign although in the mix and finishing second in their Division. East Lothian travel today with ace icon figure Alex Marshall MBE an absentee due to the No3 seed being down in Blackpool preparing for next weeks Co-operative Funeralcare sponsored International Open, and that leads to the recall of Mal Higgenbotham. The EL line up remains strong and reads as follows, Rink 1. Mark Johnston, Andy Burt, Ewan Fallen, and Jamie Higgins. Rink 2. Les Middler, Dougie Berwick, Joe Mower, and Billy Mellors. Rink 3. Mal Higgenbotham, Jamie Gordon, Stewart W Thomson, and Derek Oliver. Rink 4. Andy Jeffrey, Glenn Blair, Graham Robertson, and Scott Kennedy.
Midlothian’s last brought the Scottish Cup silverware back to Dalkeith in season 2004 and entertain hopes of bridging that gap but will have to achieve progress into the quarterfinals stage without two ace skips in Colin Walker and Ronnie Duncan. Both players are emerging stars on the world stage and have headed for New Zealand as part of a Bowls Scotland outdoor team participating in a six nation Test Series. Team manager Frank Gray has developed an impressive winning expertise over recent seasons of going into battle without all of his top liners being available and his latest line up should be good to enough for his premier league outfit to overcome East Kilbride of Division 1 at Falkirk. Rink 1. Jack Macnab, Ian Fleming, Colin Macfarlane, and Billy Peacock. Rink 2. Jamie Macnab, Craig Hodge, Scott Briggs, and David Peacock. Rink 3. Colin cook, David Munro, Andy Caldwell, and Danny McDougall. Rink 4. Ian Forbes, Drew Pearson, Lindsay Plenderleith, and AJ Knight.
West Lothian have a team that embraces five current international players and many others of high profile but a miserable league campaign has resulted in them being being relegated to Division 1 status. It will be some sort of redemption if the Holders can retain the Scottish Cup and a large gulf in class should see them progress at the expense of Division 2 opposition in the shape of Fraserburgh at Arbroath.
Balbardie have achieved premier league status for next season and on that form line are expected to deliver against Dundee of Division 2 at Abbeyview,Dunfermline.
The top local attraction of the day in the quarterfinal finals of the women’s Scottish Cup is the clash between neighbour clubs Midlothian and East Lothian at Bainfield.