DEE Hoggan took centre stage for East Lothian Indoor Bowling Club at the weekend, travelling to Arbroath in search of a national indoor singles title to pair with her outdoor success.

Having received a bye to the Sunday session, the Tranent bowler found herself in a battle with Pauline Murray.

The Whiteinch bowler used her Saturday carpet time to her advantage, using a ‘mat up, short jack’ approach to see off the East Lothian challenger 15-21.

Aaron Betts and Kieron Dodds claimed the two-bowl pairs title at East Lothian last week, seeing off a host of top-class players, without dropping a set.

The youngest-ever winners of a gents’ title were not done with that accolade.

On Sunday, East Lothian Indoor played host to the country’s pairs hopefuls, with the Dodds and Betts pair representing the Garden County.

An early-morning victory over the West Lothian pair, skipped by the highly decorated George Sneddon, came as no surprise to the home crowd. Current two-bowl holders Abbeyview fell at the first hurdle against local rivals Headwell to set up an East Lothian v Fife second round.

At one set to the good, the youngsters lost their first set of their entire pairs journey as Headwell forced a tie break. Locked at 1-1 and into the third end, Alan Ramsay looked to have played a match-winning front toucher but Betts replied in kind.

Balbardie stood in the way of a quarter-final place and proved no match for the Dodds and Betts partnership as the youngsters progressed with a straight sets victory.

The formidable pair of Ronnie Duncan and Colin Walker had a successful Sunday of their own, seeing off all three challengers in straight sets.

The well-decorated pair were full of praise off the green for their young opponents and were under no illusion they would need to perform to see off the crowd favourites.

Dodds seemed to have the beating of Duncan to the jack; however, Midlothian skip Walker had no intentions of being part of a fairytale story and turned in a virtuoso performance over the first nine ends to secure the first set.

The second set was a closer affair, Dodds continuing his impressive leading display losing fewer than three ends in his individual effort against Duncan.

With four ends to play, a chance appeared for the East Lothian duo to score a set-defining count, only to find the ever-impressive Walker equal to their efforts.

The East Lothian dream was extinguished on the next end as Walker expertly closed off a head with a backhand draw, then changed his hand and added a second to further rub salt into the wound.

The Midlothian pair progressed to the semi-final line-up later in the year.

Meanwhile, the ELIBC Saturday team welcomed the unbeaten Blantyre to Meadowmill on Saturday.

Looking to take advantage of the home setting, the team hit the ground running.

An early two-bowl takeout for Scott Kennedy secured a five and set the tone as he skipped the impressive front end of Mark Johnston, Stuart Thomson and Alan Young to a 30-shot victory over Commonwealth Games hopeful Iain McLean.

The figurehead of Alex Marshall skipped Aaron Betts, Dougie Berwick and Dean Riva to a 20-16 win over Brian Irvine and contributed to the positive shots on the big board.

Derek Oliver lost the last six ends as he skipped Jamie Higgins, Jamie Gordon and Colin Glen to a narrow 16-20 defeat at the hands of former world champion Stewart Anderson.

Billy Mellors’ rink of Mark Yuill, Andy Jeffery and Lewis Betts lost out 23-13 to Jim Meikle.

The result, 85-65, leaves East Lothian top of the table as they head to tough away opponents West Lothian this week.

The senior brigade were looking for a bounceback performance as they headed to play Tweedbank.

The game proved a very tight affair and East Lothian held a very narrow two-shot lead as they entered the last two ends.

Wins on the rinks skipped by Andy Burt (+6) and Graham Robertson (+1), followed by a draw by legend Willie Wood, were enough to cover the defeat by Tommy Young (-5).

While the narrow win was a small one (+2), the result, coupled with the shock defeat for Midlothian at the hands of Bainfield, saw the seniors return to second spot, behind on shots difference only.

Their next game will be at Meadowmill on Wednesday as they host Edinburgh-based Bainfield.

East Lothian Ladies return to action this weekend after a few weeks’ lay-off.

The team head to Falkirk as they take on Ardrossan in the Scottish Cup. Team manager Gordon Pryde has named an unchanged team from the last league win at West Lothian.

The rearranged AGM for East Lothian Indoor Bowling Club is scheduled for Wednesday at 7pm.

The committee has expressed the need for members to attend and not to take it for granted that someone else will attend in their absence.