Bowls: Seeds are sown for season finale Open Triples event

The trio of 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medal winners, Ronnie Duncan, Derek Oliver, and Darren Burnett, are the No.3 seeds

Topping the bill are last season’s champions of international stars, Martyn Rice, Graeme Archer, and David Peacock, back to defend the M&F Funeral Services sponsored event as the No.1 seeds.

The No.2 seed is Alex Marshall who skips Steven Morgan, and ‘Tattie’s’ fellow world stage star Paul Foster.

The trio of 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medal winners, Ronnie Duncan, Derek Oliver, and Darren Burnett, are the No.3 seeds while rated No.4 is the triple of Trevor Taylor, Scott Kennedy, and Billy Mellors.

Pot No.3 is headed by the legendary Willie Wood who skips his East Lothian colleagues David Sked and former World Under-25 champion Joe Mower while the leading female trio is represented by Sandra McLeish, Stacey McDougall, and Julie Forrest.

David Rattray skips namesakes Richard and Peter, while internationalist Jamie Higgins of East Lothian. plus his yet to be named front two. complete the Pot.

The four winning qualifiers that made it into Pot 2 are the trios of Gary Thomson; Daniel McDougall; Roy Borthwick, and Jack Macnab, while Pot 4 comprises the runners-up trios of John Tennant; Mark Yuill; Matt Osborne; and David Bailley.

Play gets underway at 11am with the draw producing the following the following sections.

Section 1: David Peacock; Gary Thomson; Jamie Higgins; Matt Osborne.

Section 2: Alex Marshall; Jack Macnab; Richard Rattray; David Bailley.

Section 3: Darren Burnett; Daniel McDougall; Willie Wood; John Tennant.

Rink 4: Billy Mellors; Roy Bothwick; Stacey McDougall; Mark Yuill.

• West Lothian IBC have achieved an end of year high with the international experienced partnership of Cameron Greer and Calum Logan carrying the club banner into the last four of the Gents National Four Bowl Pairs Championship.

Rattling up four wins on the trot to dominate their qualifying section at West of Scotland, the WL champions opened up the pathway towards the prospective title glory with a 26-16 prelim round win over Kris Storf (ex Parkside) and Glen Morton of Alloa.

The follow-on performance was a commanding 21-10 win over Cowal, then a nail biting climax saw them edge an 18-17 thriller over East Fife to set up a sectional final against two Falkirk stars in Martin  McCalley and Steven Glen, ex of the East Lothian parish.

West Lothian’s battling 17-14 victory takes them through to a semi-final match against Steven Dudgeon and Graeme Peacock of Galleon at Arbroath on Saturday, March 30.

The opposite semi final features Graeme Donaldson and Andrew Barker of Elgin against Stuart Pagan and Paul Brown of Abbeyview (Dunfermline).

Bainfield duo Robert White and James Hogg made encouraging progress with wins over Coatbridge (25-22) and Tweedbank (22-19) at West Lothian but then suffered a 25-16 defeat at the hands of Abbeyview in the section final.

Abbeyview had also sentenced East Lothian’s Mark Johnston and Willie Wood to a 20-17 first-round exit while the Balbardie duo of Kevin Scott and Ewan Shearer lost 23-15 to Tweedbank.

The fancied Midlothian partnership of Billy Peacock and Colin Walker made a disappointing 20-15 exit to Charles Smith and James Fernie of East fife in the prelim round at West of Scotland.

• Wins over Perth (24-17); Tweedbank (21-6); and Coatbridge (25-7); saw holders and three times champions Sharon Leitch and Lorraine Craig carry the Balbardie IBC banner into the semi-finals of the Woman’s Pairs.