International honour for bowls stars Aaron Betts and Logan Kennedy

The East Lothian Indoor Bowling Club starlets have been included in the mixed under-18s squad that will head to Solihull Indoor Bowling Club in the New Year.

Both players have been selected to play in the singles disciplines for Scotland 1 and 2.

Betts will also team up with Beth Isbister (Bainfield) and Lennon Hamilton (West of Scotland) in the triples, while Kennedy will join forces with Aaron Miller (Abbeyview) in the pairs.

The series will take place between January 13 and 15.

Meanwhile, hopes were high for both the men’s and ladies’ triples representing East Lothian in the national playdowns last weekend.

With home advantage on offer for both the men and women, they had their eyes set on a place in the last four of the Scottish Indoor Bowls triples discipline.

Dee Hoggan was part of ladies triples

Melissa Penman, Kim Hoggan and Dee Hoggan made the early running in their opening fixture to hold a slender lead over the first third of their tie against East Fife.

The visitors settled down and scored several consecutive ends to lead by 10 at end 10.

The ladies rallied to reduce the deficit to just two shots with three ends to play.

But a slack end saw East Fife claim a match-clinching five shots at end 16 to all but end hopes of progression for the Garden County ladies.

East Fife went on to clinch a place in the semi-finals later in the weekend.

The gents’ squad of Andy Jeffery, Scott Kennedy and Billy Mellors could do little to halt an impressive Tweedbank trio in the early exchanges of their first-round fixture.

An outstanding performance by Scotland under-25 star Liam Nicholson at lead set the tone for Ross Nichol and skip Stuart White.

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A relentless start forced East Lothian into an early gamble, attacking a head while lying a single shot with the potential of making a multiple.

The jack rebounded unfavourably to Tweedbank bowls and saw the visitors open a 7-0 lead.

East Lothian increased their aggressive play looking to force an opening into the game; end 10 saw the gents holding a count of four and the chance to move within touching distance of their opponents, only to see skip White expertly draw within an inch to claim a single shot and leave the visitors on the brink of an impressive win over the former British Isles champions.

It was a win that was confirmed moments later as the East Lothian trio conceded the match ahead of the scheduled 18 ends.

Tweedbank also went on to claim their place in the semi-finals of the tournament later in the weekend.

Finally, the East Lothian senior brigade welcomed Coatbridge to East Lothian last week in fixture 10 of their league campaign.

Having lost the reverse fixture earlier in the season, ‘revenge’ was the word of the day as they looked to maintain their place at the top of the east section.

Notable wins for Tommy Young (+16), G Robertson (+13) and W Wood (+8) were more than enough to see East Lothian claim the points 73-53 and maintain their place in the table.

The team headed for Balbardie yesterday afternoon (Wednesday) hoping to replicate their impressive win in the home fixture earlier in the campaign, where they claimed an almost-50-shot victory.

Those are shots that could prove vital in their pursuit of top spot.