Speirs aims to lead West Lothian to glory

The play-down action of the gents’ national fours this weekend brings opportunity for 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medal star Neil Speirs to blaze a well-known trail that has twice led him to the capture of the coveted Scottish crown.

Speirs skipped his West Lothian IBC rink to title glory in 2011 and 2015 and two of his associates remain with him in the shape of his brother James and Bryan Cooper.

Thomas Mann is the absentee figure this weekend and the international star is replaced at third by James Speirs moving up from second, with Dougie Mitchell stepping into the limelight of the national arena at second.

A preliminary round bye might have spared Speirs and his team of an early morning start at East Lothian IBC however Saturday’s first round match against Stirling is – unusually – starting at 9.30am .

The Balbardie IBC rink journey to Inverclyde for a 9.30am preliminary round battle against Falkirk stars Chris McGready, Colin Scott, Steven Glen and Steven Allan,

The ladies’national fours also takes place over the weekend and the West Lothian rink of Sandra Purdie, Alison Brown, Jean Brown, and Jennifer Sneddon make a 2pm appearance at East Lothian against Teviotdale while Balbardie line-up at the same time against Allander.

West Lothian IBC gents suffered their third defeat in four games when losing by 14 shots (88-74) on their visit to Lanarkshire in the A Division of the Premier League. The chief highlight for the visitors was Calum Logan skipping Darren Pearce, Raymond Logan and Cameron Greer to a 25-20 win over John Simpson.

However setbacks for Craig Moss (22-13), James Speirs (22-16), and Neil Speirs (24-20) resulted in WL occupying the relegation zone in company with Aberdeen and Elgin.

Balbardie gents failed to raise their game after a long trek to Fraserburgh in Division One North and, having crashed to an 88-56 defeat from the league leaders, find themselves on the second bottom rung.

West Lothian ladies had home carpet advantage against East Lothian in the East Premier Division but failed to live with the strongly talented visitors and suffered a crushing 83-33 defeat.

Balbardie’s campaign in the Division One East took on a brighter note with their 66-58 win at home to Teviotdale pushing them up into second place albeit 3 points adrift of Bainfield.

The seniors brigade of WLIBC put in a strong display to beat Tweedbank 63-49, at the Inveralmond Stadium while Balbardie suffered an agonising 69-68 defeat at home to joint leaders Midlothian. This week’s fixtures see West Lothian at home to Bainfield and Balbardie at home to Tweedbank.

Play in the national seniors fours saw the West Lothian rink of Tom Brown, John Murphy, Stuart Smith and Jim Traynor defeat host club Bainfield 19-9 then lose a 10-9 nail-biter to East Lothian.

Play in the ladies singles saw West Lothian’s Jean Brown defeat her Balbardie neighbour, Kim Ross, 21-16, at Midlothian before making a 21-16 exit to Helen Winter of Perth.