WL men suffer Scottish Cup blow
West Lothian IBC gents saw their dream of Scottish Cup glory dashed by a crushing 8-2 defeat at the hands of Falkirk in their quarter-final clash played at East Kilbride.
Falkirk were the favourites having reached the Premier League play-off final, however a classic encounter had been envisaged given that West Lothian had been runaway winners of the Division One North title.
Neutral territory against top class opposition gave West Lothian the opportunity to flash a strong signal ahead of next season’s return to the Premier League that their 2015/16 nightmare was behind them and they were once again good enough to mix it with the best.
But just six ends into the match their mental toughness was being seriously challenged, with Falkirk forging ahead on all four rinks having dished out a heavy punishment that earned them a massive 30 shot lead.
Whilst WL managed to steady the ship and avoid even more substantial damage they were unable to rock the Falkirk boat as the Premier League team traded on their comfort zone cushion to bag the shot aggregate points with an 86-50 score.
Calum Logan spared the blushes of a complete whitewash by skipping his rink of Connor McKendrick, Blair Mackie and Des Hagart to a good 20-12 win over Gary Flynn.
But defeat for the rinks skipped by Mark Allison, James Speirs and Thomas Mann cast the WL challenge well adrift of a team that had impressed with its topping of the B section of the Premier League.
Allison and his front-three of Richard Mark, Raymond Logan and Craig Moss were destroyed 32-12 by John McHutchison while Steven Allan inflicted 23-8 pain on the rink of Bryan Cooper, Grant Knox, Stuart Johnston and James Speirs.
Mann and his rink of Jamie Gracie, Ian Drysdale and Neil Speirs were unable to get to grips with Martin McCalley and lost 19-10.
This weekend is a big one for the ladies of Balbardie IBC as they are in Scottish Cup action at Edinburgh venue Bainfield on Saturday where they face a tough quarter-final battle against East Lothian.
Icon figure Lorraine Craig will be back from a triumphant Home Internationals campaign over in Belfast to take her place in a line-up that reads:
Rink One: Nicole Flannigan, Lynn McDougall, Delia Flannigan and Angela Uttley.
Rink Two: Irene Horsburgh, Helen Keys, Kim Ross and Sharon Leitch.
Rink Three: Sarajane Wright, Erin Fraser, Margaret Scally and Josie Bachini.
Rink Four: Betty Johnston, Nan Mitchell, Helen Wilson and Lorraine Craig.
Craig skipped her rink to three wins out of three in a joint-top contribution to Scotland retaining the British Isles Home International Championship title over in Belfast.
And the proud President of Scotland that held the Clara Johns Trophy aloft was Craig’s colleague from Balbardie in the shape of Catherine Shearer.
Craig and her rink beat Wales, 33-13; Ireland, 36-7; and England, 23-13.
The match results were Scotland 151-88 Wales; Scotland 172-85 Ireland; Scotland 129-84 England.