Bowls: West Lothian halt Bainfield resurgence

Bainfield, battling to avoid relegation from the A section of the indoor bowls Premier League, had their recent momentum halted as they crashed at home to reigning national champions West Lothian.

Edinburgh’s elite were bidding to string three wins together but collapsed to a 35-shot defeat (95-60) at the hands of the league leaders, who remain two points clear.

West Lothian rubbed salt into the home wounds by powering to victory on all four rinks, with their winning performances driven by skips Neil Speirs, Calum Logan, James Speirs and Mark Allison, who got the better of their Bainfield counterparts Robert Marshall, Paul O’Donnell, Gavin Smith, and Colin Hutchison.

“We were always up against it but hung in well enough to still have a chance at nine shots down after 15 ends,” said team manager John Bell. “You would normally expect the home side to finish strong but the opposite happened. We fell apart and conceded a further 26 shots so that was a major disappointment.”

Although safe from the automatic relegation spot of bottom place, the result does bring Bainfield back into the danger zone as they are only two points clear of Midlothian, who occupy the play-off position for survival in the Premier League.

Bainfield lost the first seven ends 28-22, the second 25-24, and were then overrun 42-14 in the third. Marshall and his rink of Neil Watson, Stuart Patterson and Alan Brown still had chances at 13-10 down after 13 ends, but caved in to suffer a 25-12 defeat from James Greenock, Scott Logan, Des Hagart and Neil Speirs.

O’Donnell and his experimental front three of Stephen Pringle, John Priestley and Kevein Tennant were very much in touch at 15-14 down but the loss of 1, 1, 6 plunged them to a 23-15 defeat from David Wilson, Blair Mackie, Jamie Gracie and Logan.

Smith had Chris Downie, Brian Stoddart and John McDermott in a handy position at 13-15 but conceded 4, 2 and slipped to a 21-14 defeat from Cameron Greer, Ian Drysdale ,Bryan Cooper and James Speirs.

Hutchison skipped Daniel Gormley, Paul Millar and Craig Moss into a promising 19-16 lead but they ultimately crashed to a 26-19 defeat from Paul Lynas, Raymond Logan, Stuart Johnston and Mark Allison.