Cream of the Lothians to do battle for bowls Junior crown

Bowlers from across the Lothians are competing in this weekend's Under-25 Singles Championship at Falkirk IBC.

Bainfield’s Mark McIntosh plays Marc McIntosh of Stonehaven in the prelim round while Aaron Betts of East Lothian plays an opponent from Berwickshire.

Nathan McKendrick launches his bid for glory again Keiran Alexander of Forfar. Liam McKay is the standard bearer for Midlothian and opens in the first round against Alloa.

Falkirk also hosts the Junior Ladies with prominent challenges expected from Megan Kivlin (East Lothian) and Ellie Borthwick (Midlothian). There is no representation from West Lothian while the names for Bainfield and Balbardie are unpublished.

• Bainfield’s bid to complete a hat-trick of opening wins in the gents B Division of the indoor bowls Premier League was denied by an 83-61 defeat from fellow three-in-a row seekers Midlothian at Dalkeith.

Midlothian posted wins on three of the four rinks.

Billy Peacock turned trumps at the expense of Bainfield’s Robert Marshall, by skipping Jamie Macnab, Liam McKay and Kevin McDougall to a resounding 33-11 victory, having recovered from 10-8 down after ten ends.

Colin Walker also waded in to skip Ian Forbes, John Stevenson and Dougie Russell to a 21-14 win over John McDermott while the rink of Jack Macnab, AJ Knight, Jim Cullen and Ronnie Duncan edged an 18-15 win over Paul O’Donnell.

Bainfield’s James Hogg skipped Steven Pilley, David McNair and Danny Gormley to a 21-11 win over Graham Archer.

East Lothian suffered a serious setback at Turriff, losing heavily 99-65 with all four rinks losing. A change of scenery worked wonders for a previously winless West Lothian team that finally got off the mark with a 77-69 victoey against Aberdeen in the A Division.

Wins for brothers Neil and James Speirs were supported by Craig Moss and the only setback came as Calum Logan’s rink suffered a double-figure defeat.

Neil Speirs posted his first win of the campaign by skipping Bryan Cooper, Ian Drysdale and Des Hagart to a 22-14 triumph over G Forbes and the rink of Richard Mark, Connor McKendrick, Gary Orr fell 25-17.

A closer call for Craig Moss and his front-three of George Sneddon, Dougie Mitchell and Jamie Aitken saw them battle to a 16-13 win over K Pirie while Nathan McKendrick, Raymond Logan, Cameron Greer and Calum Logan lost 25-14 to S Thomson.

West Lothian now trail undefeated leaders Falkirk and West of Scotland by four points and share the two- point mark with Aberdeen and Lanarkshire while Elgin have zero points.

Balbardie had to settle for a share of the points in a 
71-71 home game against Dundee in Division 1 North but remain in the promotion mix just one point adrift of joint leaders Fraserburgh, Cumbernauld, and Coatbridge.

• IN the Ladies National Singles staged at Glasgow IBC, West Lothian’s Jenifer Richardson of West Lothian posted a first-round win (21-3) over Stirling but was then defeated 21-7 by Laura Welsh of Whiteinch.

Janet Fairnie of East Lothian beat Coatbridge in the prelim then lost 21-8 to Blantyre. Anna Anderson of Bainfield lost to Kate Stevenson of Ardrossan. Kim Ross of Balbardie and Stacey McDougall of Midlothian lost in the prelim round.

Gents East B section Seniors League: Midlothian 47, West Lothian 56; Bainfield 54, East Lothian 64; Tweedbank 57, Teviotdale 68.