Linlithgow BC launch their bid for the Dechmont Forklift Trucks (Broxburn) sponsored Inter County Top Ten title this Sunday with the West Lothian champions travelling to East Linton for a tough first round encounter against the champions of East Lothian.
Read MoreThe Linlithgow team that qualified for the National by beating Kirkliston is the 2016 final of the WLBA Top Ten read as follows, Gary Orr (Singles); Andy Cruickshanks and Scott Mushet (Pairs); Scott Murphy, Mark Graham, and Graeme Byrne – subbing for Steven Fleming (Triples; Andy Grimshaw, Alastair Stenhouse, Derek Logie, and Gary Smith (Fours).
West Lothian faced the toughest of tasks against defending champions East Lothian at the ELCO green (Tranent) in their opening match in the Hamilton Trophy and in an epic encounter suffered a narrow four shot defeat (119-115). Whilst victory is always the aim the nature and drama of a narrow defeat suggests that team manager Gordon Logan has more positives to appreciate than negatives to wrestle with.
Alex Marshall MBE was the chief architect and principal driving force for East Lothian with the world stage star serving up a master class performance that broke the hearts of a bold West Lothian team effort, and destroyed his opposition rink skipped by fellow internationalist Thomas Mann. But Marshall’s 22 shot victory ended up sharing the Garden County limelight with fellow skip Scott Kennedy who tipped the scales of match victory with his spectacular burning of the jack on his penultimate end. Kennedy took to the mat challenged by master scoreboard pressures and shots against him; but targeting the head with its destruction in mind he received the loud roar of the crowd as his fierce strike exploded on the jack and burnt it good and proper.
The replayed end rubbed more salt in the West Lothian wound with Kennedy skipping his front-three to a count of 4 shots that set the scene for a tightrope climax and forced WL onto the back-foot across the six rinks. Wins for the rinks skipped by Kennedy and Billy Mellors were narrow in margin (one and two) but supported the massive contribution from Marshall to hold off the challenging wins achieved by WL skips, Grant Logan, Andrew Dunnett, and Neil Speirs.
East Lothian made the brighter start to capture the first of the three seven end phases, 43-31, and the home county also answered testing pressure with a strong 49-33 dominance of the third, after West Lothian had pleased their support with a sparkling 51-27 supremacy on the second. Mann and his rink of Jamie Aitken, Alec Allan, and Steven Fleming were blitzed 17-1 over the opening seven ends then a further collapse from 19-9 saw them thumped, 33-11 having counted at only 7 of the 21 ends.
Ray Logan added 1, 4, 1 to skip Andy Semple, Bair Mackie, and Gary Smith into a 16-15 lead before piped 21-20 by Mellors while Kennedy edged out Frazer Muirhead, David Lamb, John Aitken, and Sandy McDougall, 20-18.
Grant Logan played the star role for WL skipping his brother Greg at third and a front-end of Drew Paterson and Jordan Pearce to a 27-14 win that included a magnificent count of 7 against Glenn Blair. Dunnett skipped Ewan Shearer, Scott Logan and Calum Logan into a 12-2 lead then kept doing enough to deliver a 21-14 win over Brian Young while Steven Forrest, Mark Allison, James Speirs Jnr and Neil Speirs finished with a 3 to pip John McCrorie, 18-17. Team changes for this Saturday’s match against West Fife at Newbridge claim host club duo Andy Semple and Alec Allan as selection process victims with Scott Mushet (Linlithgow) and Darren Pearce (Kirkliston) drafted in.
West Lothian launched their Under 25 Scottish League Cup campaign with a nail biting 2 shot win (119-117) over Stirling County at Linlithgow. The rink results were, Rory Walker won 30-9; Robbie Cuthill won 23-13; Jordan Pearce won 22-20; Jack Murphy peeled 19-19; Jamie Edwards lost 11-27; Connor McKendrick lost 14-29. West Lothian play Renfrewhire at Ralston this Sunday.