East Lothian Indoor Bowling Club’s men’s side knew they faced a tough challenge when the leaders of the B section in the Scottish Premier League travelled to Ayrshire on Saturday with the aim to move two points clear of chief rivals Ardrossan.

Ardrossan have proved this season that they are a very capable outfit and East Lothian had to pull out all the stops to earn a 78-78 share of the spoils in an epic game of bowls that had just about everything from start to finish.

The Garden County travelling support was thrilled to bits by a united team effort of high-octane enthusiasm that seemed unlikely when ace player Scott Kennedy became a late call-off, resulting in the selectors having to shuffle a pack that was already missing the valuable services of captain Billy Mellors and Andrew Jeffrey.

“Given all the circumstances leading up to the game, that could be a massive point at the end of the campaign, as our healthy shot margin advantage means we remain very much in the driving seat for the top qualifying honours with only two fixtures remaining,” commented an East Lothian spokesperson.

For the second consecutive week, Alex Marshall was the inspiring driver of the East Lothian effort, with the world-stage star producing a game changing 3, 4 finish to skip Kieran Simants, Dougie Berwick and Steven Morgan to a 20-13 victory over Martin Williamson.

Derek Oliver served up an impressive performance to skip Ewan Fallen, Gary Darling and Graham Robertson to a 24-18 win over David O’Rourke.

Stand-in skip Jamie Higgins and his front three of Gary Muir, Tom Young and Stewart Thomson gave an excellent account of themselves before losing 19-13 to Robert McConnachie.

Colin Cook, Jamie Gordon, Mark Johnston and Willie Wood did well to close 17-5 to 17-17 with six ends to play but couldn’t sustain their revival and slipped to a 28-21 defeat from David Crawford.

The side will have their mettle tested again tomorrow (Saturday) with a trip along the M8 to tackle second-bottom Paisley, but with Ardrossan, Falkirk and now Lanarkshire hot on their heels, the leaders know they have to deliver.

East Lothian is handicapped by the absence of icon figure Marshall and regulars Jeffrey and Muir.

Better news is that inspirational figures Mellors and Kennedy are back on duty and join Oliver and Higgins in skipping roles.

The team reads: C. Cook, J. Gordon, W. W. Wood, S. Kennedy (skip). K. Simants, D. Berwick, S. Morgan, B. Mellors (capt/skip). E. Fallen, G. Darling, G. Robertson, D. Oliver (skip). M. Johnston, T. Young, S. W. Thomson, J. Higgins (skip).

Meanwhile, Meadowmill will be a hive of activity on Sunday as East Lothian IBC has the honour of hosting the gents’ international trial match.

The home contingent of Billy Mellors, Scott Kennedy, Jamie Higgins, Graham Robertson, Mark Johnston and Willie Wood will all be involved in the proceedings, which get under way at noon. Alex Marshall and Derek Oliver will not be involved as they have already been pre-selected for the final 24-man line-up.

Also on Sunday, Emma Brown makes the trip to Falkirk IBC to participate in the ladies’ international trial match. The ladies’ side delivered the expected home win over foot-of-the-table Tweedbank in convincing style by 26 shots and in the process gained the entirely unexpected reward of shooting back to joint top of Division 1C of the Scottish Ladies League.

Their resounding triumph over Tweedbank was achieved by wins on three rinks – skipped by Yvonne Veitch (+14) Nancy McNeil (+12) and Emma Brown (+7) – while Janet Fairnie suffered a narrow defeat (-4).

The bonus result for East Lothian came with the shock defeat of Bainfield, with the clear league leaders toppled by a 79-74 setback at Teviotdale.

So everything is now set for a final game winner-takes-all clash between East Lothian and Bainfield at Meadowmill tomorrow (Saturday).

The eagerly awaited encounter kicks off at 2pm and the following team has been selected.

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

The senior side made it a magnificent nine wins out of nine when they beat Berwickshire 81-54 on away soil last Wednesday in the East B section of the Scottish Senior League.

Wins on all four rinks – Frankie Gray (+11), Jock Brodie (+7), Peter Laidlaw (+5) and Tom Young (+4) – reflected another strong team performance and the result means the Garden County ‘auld yins’ are now in an uncatchable position at the top of the section ahead of Wednesday’s final game against Bainfield at home.

East Lothian now meets the winners of the East A section – Falkirk or Stirling – in the quarter-final knockout stage on Wednesday, January 22, at Headwell IBC in Dunfermline. East Lothian’s participation in this season’s Scottish Mixed Team Championship was a short-lived affair after they suffered a preliminary-round defeat against East Fife at neutral Abbeyview IBC on Sunday.

The points were shared 4-4 but East Lothian lost out on a shot margin bank that saw them outgunned 71-66.

Mark Johnston got the Garden County off to the perfect start when he won his all-important singles encounter 21-5, while Willie Wood skipped Janet Fairnie, Yvonne Veitch and Stevie Thomson to a good win in the fours clash. But heavy defeats in the pairs and triples tipped the scales in favour of East Fife. The youth side bounced back to winning ways in some style as they inflicted 7-0 points misery on East Fife in their East of Scotland Junior League clash at Meadowmill on Saturday morning. East Lothian Indoor Bowling Club is now offering half-season memberships at £35 for full members and £20 for junior members, effective from January 1. Anyone wishing to join should call into Meadowmill or apply at elibc.co.uk Anyone wishing to enter any of the post-Christmas leagues should also apply online via elibc.co.uk or contact the match secretary as soon as possible.