THE men’s side from East Lothian Indoor Bowling Club bounced back to winning ways in the B section of the Scottish Premier League.

They did so in some style as they proved too strong for foot-of-the-table Arbroath, powering to a magnificent 65-shot victory (113-48) at Meadowmill on Saturday.

And a good day got even better for the Garden County camp when news filtered through that their chief rivals in the qualifying race for top spot – Ardrossan and Falkirk – had both suffered shock defeats.

With three rounds of fixtures remaining, East Lothian are neck-and-neck with Ardrossan at the top of the table with 10 points, although East Lothian do enjoy a massive shot margin advantage of 122. “It was a great time to produce our best performance of the campaign to date and the result now puts us back in a strong position in the race for top spot,” said team captain Billy Mellors.

East Lothian will be extremely encouraged that all four of their rinks produced winning performances against an Arbroath team who had recently defeated Falkirk.

Skips Alex Marshall (+32), Derek Oliver (+13) Scott Kennedy (+9) and Billy Mellors (+9) all won by comfortable margins against their respective opponents.

The side is back in action tomorrow (Saturday) and expect another severe test when they visit serious rivals Ardrossan.

They go into the battle without two regular stars in the shape of Andrew Jeffrey and captain Billy Mellors, and their shoes will be filled by the promotions of Stewart Thomson and Jamie Higgins from front to back end, while Gary Muir and Tom Young come in to form a brand new front end for stand-in skip Higgins.

The rinks skipped by Alex Marshall, Derek Oliver and Scott Kennedy are unchanged, giving the side a stable look and one that will hopefully deliver in Ayrshire.

The full team reads: C. Cook, J. Gordon, W. W. Wood, S. Kennedy (skip). K. Simants, D. Berwick, S. Morgan, A. Marshall (skip). M. Johnston, E. Fallen, G. Robertson, D. Oliver (skip). G. Muir, T. Young, S. W. Thomson, J. Higgins (skip).

Meanwhile, on the international stage it’s congratulations to Ewan Fallen after he was rewarded for strong and consistent performances over the past couple of seasons by being named in the Scotland under-25 side that will participate in the British Isles Junior International series at County Antrim IBC in Northern Ireland on the weekend of February 8-9.

Fallen will win his first cap when he lines up at second in the rink skipped by Callum Taggart of Paisley.

In the ladies’ equivalent, the Garden County trio of Emma Brown, Dee Hoggan and Kim Hoggan will once again grace the international limelight as all three were named in the Scotland Ladies’ under-25 side that head to Nottingham IBC for the ladies British Isles Junior International series that is also being held on weekend of February 8-9. The ladies’ side were not in action at the weekend but do return to competitive Scottish Ladies League action tomorrow at home to struggling Tweedbank for which the following team has been selected.

Team: M. Devine, G. Mackintosh, M. Thomson, J. Fairnie (skip). J. McFarlane, A. Berwick, A. Irvine, N McNeill (skip). M. Murray, I. Combe, M. Hamilton, E. Brown (skip). R. Mackintosh, J. Russell, C. Ward, Y. Veitch (skip).

The senior side continue to go great guns in the East B section of the Scottish Senior League as they maintained their healthy four point lead at the top of the table following a hard-fought 65-57 away win at Teviotdale last Wednesday.

Wins on the rinks skipped by Willie Wood (+11), Peter Laidlaw (+4) and Frankie Gray (+2) reflected another strong team performance, with the only setback being a single-figure defeat for Tom Young.

The side was back in action on Wednesday as they made the long trip up the A1 to tackle newcomers Berwickshire.

A win there for the Garden County ‘auld yins’ was to be enough to see them confirmed as section winners.

Meanwhile, a side from East Lothian IBC are in preliminary-round Scottish Mixed Team Championship action on Sunday against East Fife at the neutral venue of Abbeyview IBC (start time 2pm).

Two-times club champion Mark Johnston will spearhead the Garden County challenge in the all-important singles event at Abbeyview, while the mother-and-son combination of Rosemary and Scott McIntosh forge a strong-looking partnership in the pairs.

Nancy McNeil, John Henderson and Steven Clark will be the East Lothian representatives in the triples, while in the fours it’s Janet Fairnie, Yvonne Veitch, Stevie Thomson and Willie Wood who will fly the county flag.

The youth side is back in East of Scotland Junior League action tomorrow morning at 8am when they welcome East Fife to Meadowmill.

Youth convenor Peter Fallen has selected the following side.

Team: C. Shaw, A. Betts, L. Betts, C. Darling skip. R. Sheilds, K. Dodds, C. Mackintosh, C. Allison skip. M. Kivlin, C. Robertson, R. Buchanan, D. Riva skip.

The draw for the quick-fire pairs tournament (three bowls – eight ends) at East Lothian IBC on Tuesday (December 10) evening is as follows: 6pm – C. Allison v J. Higgins; C. Darling v D. Berwick. 6.45pm – S. Morgan v M. Osborne; C. Johnston v G. Mackintosh; J. McCrorie v S. Kennedy; S. Douglas v E. Brown; E. Fallen v A. Burt; S. Mackintosh v W. W. Wood.

Finally, East Lothian Indoor Bowling Club is now offering half-season memberships at a cost of £35 for full members and £20 for junior members and is effective from January 1.

Anyone wishing to join should call into Meadowmill or apply online by visiting www.elibc.co.uk Anyone wishing to enter any of the post-Christmas leagues should also apply online via www.elibc.co.uk or contact the match secretary as soon as possible.