Burnett and Doig on opposite sides in final

Arbroath’s Darren Burnett and Lesley Doig, from Strathmiglo, will both feature in tomorrow’s final of the Just World Mixed Pairs championship at Potters Resort in Norfolk – but they will be on different sides.

Yesterday, Burnett, standing in for Paul Foster who withdrew on the death of his father, helped Norfolk’s own Bex Field to a hardearned 7-5 4-8 2-1 semi-final win over Guernsey’s Alison Merrien and Blantyre’s Stewart Anderson.

Doig hit top form at lead, outplaying the highly-rated English international Katherine Rednall, and giving her skip Jamie Chestney a great start that saw the duo through to the final 6-5 5-5.

Both matches enthralled a large crowd at Potters, but, while Field and Burnett scraped through in a topsy-turvy encounter, Doig and Chestney won more comfortably that the scoreline might suggest.

Field and Burnett raced into a 7-0 lead in just four ends, and coasted to victory in the first set. But Merrien and Anderson found their touch in the second, and hit back to square the match, and earned the right to contest a bestof-three ends tie-break.

A sudden-death third end provided sensational entertainment, as Merrien and Anderson drew close to the jack, and Field and Burnett mercilessly hit their rivals’ shots off the rink.

In the other semi-final Doig was tremendous at lead, and Chestney was in great form at skip, but Harlow kept their opponent’s hopes alive with some devastating drives that obtained maximum results.

After six ends of the first set, the scores were level at 5-5, when Doig and Chestney got over the line with a single and, although they were always in control in the second set, Chestney was forced into a drive to save a set lie of two shots on the last end.

Burnett is also going strong in the Open singles, while Doig, who beat Aussie Ellen Ryan in the Women’s Matchplay singles, will be confident when she faces Rednall in Wednesday’s semi finals.

Lesley Doig: in top form.