Fine win in Trophy clash
West Lothian notched up a second win from three with a 128-114 triumph over Borders in a hard fought Hamilton Trophy battle at Broxburn.
Wins for the rinks skipped by Raymond Logan, Neil Speirs, and Andy Dunnett earned cheers from the home crowd banking while the defeats of Grant Logan, Sandy McDougall, and Thomas Mann were all single digit affairs that would not prove to be costly come the final tally.
It is a concern that Borders edged the first phase, 44-39, and the third, 43-35, however a stunning 54-27 domination of the second delivered the much welcomed two win points needed to keep West Lothian in touch with East Lothian and Midlothian who are sitting top of the table.
The match-winning performance was served up by Kirkliston veteran Raymond Logan who skipped Darren Pearce, Scott Mushet, and Gary Smith to a 29-12 victory over ace Borders figure Stuart Bebbington.
The highlight was a purple patch run of 12-0 over six ends that accelerated his score from 10-8 to 22-8 then a later run of seven without reply over three ends to 29-9 confirmed the supremacy of his rink and saw the hosts clinch a commanding victory.
Speirs looked set for a drubbing at 11-0 down but the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games gold medal star rallied his rink of Steven Forrest, Andy Walker Jnr, and brother James Speirs to a sensational spell of 3, 3, 2, 4, 1, (1), 7, 3 that fired them into a 23-12 lead which would eventually set up a hard-earned 26-21 win over Graeme Forsyth.
Dunnett and his front-three of Ewan Shearer, Scott Logan, and Calum Logan dipped from 5-1 up to 13-6 down before they displayed a tremendous positive mental toughness to battle back and steal an 18-16 win over Steve Richardson.
Grant Logan added 1, 4 to cross 18-15 after 15-ends but in the battle to the line was narrowly pipped 22-21 by Ross Nichol as he suffered defeat.
The rink of Frazer Muirhead, David Lamb, John Aitken, and Sandy McDougall went into the final end behind by a single shot but they were unable to steal victory, losing a single to suffer a 23-21 defeat to Stuart White.
Mann lost touch from 11-9 up to suffer a 20-13 setback at the hands of Ian Crawford.
This weekend fixture has a must win look about it with West Lothian tackling an undefeated Midlothian.
Elsewhere, the under-25 brigade of West Lothian suffered a first defeat in their Scottish League campaign and paid a heavy price with the 130-119 disappointment causing them to be denied the qualifying place on shot margin by Stirlingshire.
The game-changing score in the match makes painful reading for the luckless Jack Murphy of Bellsburn with his rink suffering a 37-8 thumping that added heavily to the three and six shot defeats of Jordan Pearce and Connor McKendrick, respectively.
Wins on three West Lothian rinks were registered by Robbie Cuthill (31-15), Jamie Edwards (23-15), and Rory Walker (22-19).
Murphy’s discomfort continued in Monday night’s first round proper of the Jack High Insurance sponsored Junior Open for The Fred Meikle Trophy as he bit the dust at the hands of the defending champion Calum Logan in a 21-18 thriller at Kinneil.
A tension filled climax to the clash at Pumpherston saw Ryan Laurie of East Calder clinch a 21-20 win over Callum Busby of Blackburn while another hard fought battle saw Joe Sutherland of Whitburn survive at the 21-19 expense of Declan Rennie (Winchburgh) at Kirkliston.