Stepney out of bowls contest

Elgin joiner Michael Stepney bowed out of the World Indoor Bowls Championships in a desperately tight pairs quarter-final at Great Yarmouth yesterday.

The 2011 runnerup and his English partner Robert Paxton narrowly lost the opening set to seven-time world champion Andy Thomson and Stowmarket’s Mark Royal. Stepney and Paxton threatened to take the match to a deciding tiebreak, but Thomson and Royal scraped through 7-6, 5-5.

Sixteenth-ranked Stepney takes on Durham’s Gary Smith in the first round of the singles next Monday.