Relieved Anderson keeps title bid alive

Seventh seed Stewart Anderson recovered from an opening set slump at Potters Resort in Norfolk to keep his hopes alive of regaining the Just World Indoor Singles title he last held in 2013.

Anderson, from Blantyre, looked to be suffering from the same flu-like symptoms as Alex Marshall displayed the previous day, and was unimpressive as he lost the opening set to 24-year-old England international Perry Martin from Swale 10-2, only scoring on two ends.

Martin took singles on the opening two ends of the second but Anderson picked up a confidence-boosting treble followed by a double two ends later to square the set at 5-5. He was then thrown a lifeline when he reeled off a 2, 1 and 1 finish to take the set 9-5 and force a best-of-three end tie-break. Despite an unlucky bounce of the jack on the first end of the tie-break, he counted the vital remaining ends to win 2-1.

Later a relieved Anderson said: “In that first set my body wasn’t functioning at all. I just felt drained. However, on the second end of the second set my medication kicked in and I began to feel a bit better and that gave me a lift and I began to string a few shots together and was a bit more consistent.

“I knew Perry would make me work for anything I got and that it would be a hard game. I felt over the piece he played better than me but I was just happy to make a game of it and am obviously very happy to remain in with a shout”.

The quarter-finals of the Mixed Pairs dominate play today, with Scots involved in all four matches.