West Lothian faced challenging conditions in their Hamilton Trophy match against West Fife at Newbridge; but refusing to be blown off course produced a solid team performance to score a 35 shot victory (131-96) in an encouraging bounce back from a narrow opening away defeat from East Lothian.
Read MoreWins on the rinks skipped by Thomas Mann, Neil Speirs, Andy Dunnett, and Raymond Logan kept the visitors on the back foot although the competitive Fifers achieved narrow wins over Sandy McDougall and Grant Logan. WL asserted their authority on the opening seven-end phase with strong starts from Speirs (14-4), Mann (13-4), and Grant Logan (10-3) contributing to a 56-34 supremacy.
The visitors became stronger in the middle phase but West Lothian retained the major scoreboard initiative with a 37-37 share then finding a higher finishing gear accelerated to campaign building victory with the 38-25 capture of the third. Mann emerged the main man as the host club ace turned up trumps at the expense of star W Fife figure Paul Brown, skipping Jamie Aitken, Blair Mackie, and Steven Fleming to a 32-12 win that was powered by an explosion from 14-10. Speirs hit the lids to race into a 15-4 lead then stayed on strongly to skip Steven Forrest, Mark Allison, and James Speirs Jnr to a 25-11 win over Kenny Bald.
Dunnett and his rink of Ewan Shearer, Scott Logan, and Calum Logan came under pressure at 11-10 down but answered the questions being asked with a 9-4 reply to clinch a 19-15 win over Craig Watson. Logan (Raymond) and his front-three of Darren Pearce, Scott Mushet, and Gary Smith thrilled the watching crowd by conjuring a magic finish of 5, 1 to snatch a 19-18 win over David Junor.
McDougall and his rink of Frazer Muirhead, David Lamb, and John Aitken dropped a 5 to trail 12-5 and although counting at 12 of the 21 ends were always against the collar in a 21-19 defeat from Jim McGuire. Logan (Grant) looked sure to set the heather on fire when skipping Drew Paterson, Jordan Pearce, and Greg Logan into a 12-3 lead after eight ends but from 14-5 their flame went out in a disappointing 19=17 defeat from Robert McFarlane. Borders provide the opposition this Saturday at Broxburn and availability issues mean that will be changes in the WL line up.
The Under 25 brigade of the West Lothian BA fought back from a 14 shot deficit at one stage to register a five shot away victory (117-112) over Renfrewshire at Paisley venue Ralston. The home team had their nose in front by six shots (100-94) with just three ends to play but an 11-3 swing on end 19 changed the landscape dramatically in the 105-103 of WL who then finished 8-3 and 4-6 to trigger the victory salute. Wins were posted by Jamie Edwards (24-16); Rory Walker (25-17); and Jordan Pearce (18-17) while Connor McKendrick finished peels (19-19); Robbie Cuthill lost (19-14); and Darren Pearce (24-17). WL face Dunbartonshire away at Lenzie this Sunday.
Linlithgow made a first round exit away to East Linton in the Dechmont Forklift Trucks sponsored Inter County Top Ten with the West Lothian champions suffering a 6-2 defeat from their East Lothian counterparts. Spearhead figure Gary Orr was in close touch at 13-12 down but the abrupt loss of 3, 4, 1 saw him crash to a 21-12 defeat in the Singles from Graham Bell. The Pairs partnership of Andrew Cruickshank and Scott Mushet trailed 10-1 and lost 21-9 while the rink of Andy Grimshaw Jnr, Tom Hamilton, Derek Logie, and Gary Smith were edged out 15-13. The trio of Mark Graham, Ewan Shearer, and Steven Fleming were strong 21-17 winners in the Triples.
Play in the Jack High Insurance sponsored WLBA Junior Open for The Fred Meikle Trophy is underway with Kyle Broadley of Kirkliston making the early headlines with a dramatic 21-20 win over 2016 finalist Shaun Cairns of Harrysmuir. A top of the bill clash this Monday night features Jack Murphy of Bellsburn against defending champion Calum Logan of Kirkliston at Kinneil .