WL hold the lead in chase for trophy
West Lothian hold a two point lead over the chasing pack entering Saturday’s final match against West Fife at Lumphinnans in the East section of the Hamilton Trophy and it will rank as a major shock if the visitors fail to clinch a place in the knock-out stage.
West Fife are out of qualifying contention to finish in the top two but represent tough opposition at home and are well capable of making life uncomfortable for a WL team that just managed to get over the line against East Lothian at Buchan Park last weekend.
Team manager Gordon Logan brings back Scott Logan to play second to Steven Fleming and pushes Paul Sweeney up to third to fill the shoes of Greg Logan who is unavailable.
Winchburgh’s Andy Walker comes in for Gary Orr at second to Thomas Mann.
WL were hard pressed to keep a resilient East Lothian at bay but showed commendable spirit themselves to clinch a five shot victory (126-121) in an epic battle that went right down to the wire.
East Lothian enjoyed supremacy on four of the six rinks having inflicted defeat on the home rinks skipped by Thomas Mann (-12); Steven Fleming (-3); Grant Logan (-1); and Raymond Logan (-1); however Andy Dunnett (+12) and Neil Speirs (+10) rescued the match victory.
The race to capture The Rosebery Cup is hotting up with Newbridge capturing the scalp (70-65) of quarter-final favourites Linlithgow and Whitburn – one time giants of the event – arousing from their long time lumber to beat Uphall Station, 65-55. Buchan Park impressed at the 63-41 expense of East Calder while West Calder went through with a 67-60 win over Ratho.
Newbridge produced a strong and impressive performance to beat Linlithgow in the final of The Kelso Cup played at host club Broxburn – the winners were bridging a 50 year gap having last captured the coveted two rink championship title in 1968.
The 2018 WLBA Junior Open for the Fred Meikle Trophy and sponsored by Winter Jack High Insurance has a attracted a strong field and defending champion Calum Logan of Kirkliston has drawn a tough prelim hot potato in the shape of Harrysmuir star Jamie Deegan.
Uphall Station ace Richard Mark has booked his passage to the national championships at Ayr Northfield in the Seniors Singles having turned up trumps at the 21-11 expense of icon figure Raymond Logan of Kirkliston Logan – who beat Willie Wood 21-20 to win the national singles proper in 1998 – made a strong recovery from 0-10 to 9-13 but remained against the collar at 11-16 then bowed out to a strong 1, 2, 2 finish from Mark.
Kirkliston suffered a double blow in the Seniors with their Four of Jim Davidson, Charlie Houston, Davy Boyd and Gordon Logan suffering a 17-6 defeat the hands of their Newbridge neighbours, John Sweeney, Bobo Forrest, Ian Robertson, and Alec Allan.
The District Finals of the disciplines of the national championships are down for decision at Bankton Mains tomorrow night (Friday) and an additional attraction will be the induction of 1986 Commonwealth Games hero Grant Knox of Armadale into the WLBA Hall of Fame.