Big win seesWest Lothian progress

West Lothian booked their place in the quarter- finals knockout stage of The Hamilton Trophy with a spectacular 152- 105 away win over Edinburgh & Leith.

Finishing second to table- toppers Midlothian had looked a forlorn hope for West until 2016 national champions East Lothian shot themselves in the foot by failing – with home advantage – to beat a previously winless Fife County in the penultimate round of section fixtures.

A superior shot margin over their garden county rivals put West in the driving seat for what should have been a serious test against East, but wins on four of the six rinks saw the visitors pass with flying colours.

Double figure triumphs for the rinks skipped by Neil Speirs, Andy Dunnett and Thomas Mann were supported by a single-figure win for Raymond Logan – while the setbacks suffered by Grant Logan and Steven Fleming were narrow ones.

The phase scoring saw West make a forceful impact to capture the first one 52-34. Then a super revved-up 5725 acceleration on the third answered a slight 43-46 brake on the second.

Speirs included a purple patch spell of 3, 5, 2, 2, 3 as the 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medal star skipped Andy Semple, John Aitken and Mark Allison to a 33-15 win over John McDermott.

Dunnett carded a six, a five, and a four as he skipped Ewan Shearer, Scott Logan and Calum Logan to a 31-15 win over Richard Tough, while Mann and his rink of Drew Paterson, Blair Mackie and Sandy McDougall converted a 7-1 lead into a 29-14 win over Jamie Gracie.

Logan (Raymond) crossed to 20-15 with a run of 2, 3, 1, 2 then skipped Darren Pearce, Scott Mushet and Gary Smith to a 23- 17 win over Paul O’Donnell.

Logan (Grant) and his front three of Frazer Muirhead, David Lamb, and Greg Logan were pipped to the post 20-19 by James Hogg, while Steven Forrest, Andy Walker Jnr, James Speirs Jnr, and Fleming slipped from 12-4 up to a 2417 defeat from Paul Veitch.

Kirkliston notched up their 25th title triumph in the Historic WLBA Rosebery Cup (1882) having come from off the pace to score a battling 77-71 victory over Linlithgow in the final played at a wellprepared Harrysmuir venue in Livingston.

Elsewhere, the annual Ella Paton Memorial Triples were held at Oakbank Bowling Club on Saturday.

This year’s winners were James Jamieson, Cath Wilson and Ross McDonald. They defeated the team of Fred Dailly, Kenny Black and Georgia Latham in the final.

The sum of £ 285 was raised from donations with the money being donated to Macmillan Cancer Support.