East Lothian Indoor Bowling Club’s 2013 Scottish 4-bowl pairs champions Jamie Higgins and Derek Oliver are the crowd-pullers to Stanley Indoor Bowling Club in County Durham next week, with the talented duo bidding to enhance their national title by adding the British Isles crown.

The Garden County pairing’s bid for title glory starts on Monday morning at 9.30am, with the Channel Islands pairing of Todd Priaulx and Chris Dyer providing the opposition in the opening-round clash.

A win for Higgins and Oliver would set up the prospect of a mouth-watering semi-final clash with newly crowned World Indoor Pairs champions Nick Brett and Greg Harlow of England on Tuesday at 2pm.

Meanwhile, Higgins has recently received the exciting news that he is to be capped by Scotland after being drafted into the 26-man squad for the British Home International series, also to be played at Stanley IBC from next Thursday (March 13).

Higgins’ late call-up as a travelling reserve comes after the withdrawals of Wayne Hogg and Paul Foster from the original side selected.

The East Lothian banner at this weekend’s Ladies British Home International series at Stanley IBC is represented by Emma Brown (pictured inset), as she continues to make her mark at senior level since her full debut in 2011.

The men’s side from East Lothian IBC’s defence of the Scottish Cup title suffered early termination, with the record six-times champions defeated 79-66 by Blantyre in the first round at West Lothian IBC in Livingston on Saturday.

The Garden County side expected a tough challenge from their fellow Premier League opposition but the challenge was made much tougher as they went into the clash missing no fewer than six first team regulars, namely Alex Marshall, Derek Oliver, Scott Kennedy, Steven Morgan, Jamie Gordon and Ewan Fallen.

The players drafted in were debut players Calum Darling and Gordon Whyte, while there were recalls for Gary Muir, Tom Young, Stevie Clark and Stewart Thomson.

Team captain Billy Mellors said: “Even with a near full-strength team it was always going to be difficult task against a very good Blantyre side but I asked the team to enter the battle with a positive attitude and I feel our makeshift team and recast line-up put up a bold show.” Wins on the rinks skipped by Graham Robertson and Mellors kept the defending champions in the picture, but their combined 15 shots failed to cover the heavier defeats of Jamie Higgins and Willie Wood. Robertson skipped Colin Cook, Calum Darling and Stewart Thomson to an excellent 21-12 win over former cap Jim McCann, while Mellors and his front-three of Gary Muir, Stevie Clark and Gary Darling staged a strong recovery to register a 21-16 win over George Walker.

Higgins and his rink of Kieran Simants, Dougie Berwick and Mark Johnston slipped to a 24-10 defeat from Brian Irvine, while Wood, Gordon Whyte, Tom Young and Andrew Jeffrey went down 21-14 against John Bishop. The ladies’ side’s journey in their Scottish Cup also came to a halt with a narrow seven-shot defeat (81-74) from Premier League side Falkirk in the first round at Abbeyview IBC, but credit went to the Garden County elite as they went down fighting against talented opposition.

Better news is that the senior side set their Senior Scottish Cup campaign alight with a thrilling six-shot victory (57-51) over defending champions Falkirk in a cracking second-round clash that went right down to the wire.

Wins on the rinks skipped by Jock Brodie (+7), Tom Young (+2) and Willie Wood (+2) reflected a strong team performance from the Garden County ‘auld yins’ and covered the first setback of the season suffered by Peter Laidlaw.

East Lothian celebrated cup title triumphs in seasons 2003 and 2006 and stepped up their quest on Wednesday to complete a treble against third-round opponents Abbeyview at Headwell IBC (Dunfermline).

The youth side’s hopes of reaching the finals day of the Scottish Youth Top 10 were cruelly dashed by a last-bowl delivery that knocked them out in the quarter-final stage.

The Garden County young brigade looked poised to capture the scalp of Stirling as, with the game tied on both points and shots, the fours held a match-winning shot, but with the final delivery of the match the Stirling skip played a running bowl into the head that cannoned the jack straight to one of his team-mate’s bowls. Tomorrow (Saturday) morning is the climax to the action in the East of Scotland Junior League and East Lothian finish away at Bainfield.

All players who are available are requested to contact youth convenor Peter Fallen immediately. The minibus will depart Meadowmill at 7am.

On Sunday, Midlothian IBC in Dalkeith hosts the Scottish Youth Pairs and Triples.

Teaming up in the pairs is new Under-17 cap Calvert Allison and national Under-18 singles title holder Calum Darling, while Lewis Betts, Craig MacKintosh and Dean Riva join forces in the triples.