BOWLING Scots stay in Belfast contention

Scotland kept themselves in the hunt to regain the men’s home international series title in Belfast yesterday.

They led from the front of their match against Wales and then slowly tightened their grip to win 123-88.

The Scots had five winning rinks from six.

Their top rink was skipped by Derek Oliver, who scored a impressive count of seven shots on the 14th end before finishing with a final flourish by adding five shots on the last to see off Dai Prosser 27-13.

Paul Foster, with Garioch’s Jason Banks and Turriff’s Connor Milne at the front end, led all the way in his 19-11 win against Jason Greenslade, while Iain Mc Lean finished with a run of 2, 1 and 1 to beat Jarren Breen 19-11.

Aberdeen’s Andy Thomson led for Colin Walker and they held off a late challenge from David Kingdon. The Scots were in front 17-11 with four ends remaining and scored two shots to four for Wales on the way to a 19-17 success.

Stewart Anderson’s rink, with Arbroath’s Andy Furye playing third, were on the back foot for most of their game, trailing David Harding 15-10 at the sixteenth, but three trebles for the loss of a single propelled them 19-16 ahead for the first time in the match and they scored with a further three on the last to win 22-16.

Elgin’s Mike Stepney made a welcome return to Alex Marshall’s rink at third. They had to work hard throughout their match and were edged out 19-17 by Steve Harris.

England continued their fine form, this time whitewashing hosts Ireland on all six rinks to post a 137-90 victory that gave them an overall shots total of +82.

With Scotland’s two wins bringing their tally to 46 that leaves the Scots requiring a victory in their title deciding this afternoon against England.