WEST LOTHIAN Indoor Bowls Club's challenge for qualifying from the A section of the Premier League suffered its first setback with a 13-shot defeat from Prestwick at Ayrshire.
Both teams came into the match undefeated after three games and although West Lothian battled bravely and gave a good account of themselves they couldn't avoid an 82-69 defeat.
Wins for the rinks skipped by George Sneddon and Neil Speirs kept West
Lothian in the picture but their success was put in the shade when Prestwick overcame top players Mark Allison and Thomas Mann.
All three seven-end phases of the match were strongly contested with only a few shots separating the two teams, however, Prestwick had the home environment in their favour and made it work for them to return advantages of 31-23, 27-26 and 24-20.
The major problem confronting the West Lothian challenge was the exciting form of Prestwick legend Robert McCulloch with the former Scotland captain cashing in on late counts of five and three to contribute a 15-shot win to the home cause.
McCulloch and Co. counting at 11 of the 19 ends completed claimed the rink of Richard Mark, Blair Mackie, Raymond Logan and Thomas Mann with a 27-12 victory.
Allison and his rink of Bryan Cooper, Ian Laverie and Calum Logan were also playing against the collar although it took the loss of 2, 2, 1 on the run-in to condemn them to a 22-15 defeat from Peter Boyd. Speirs might well have collapsed at 13-8 down to Colin Smith but instead rallied by skipping Ewan Wilson, James Greenock and James Speirs to a mighty five then on to a commendable 26-21 victory.
Sneddon always had Drew Boyd in his grip but only just and it took a 2, 1 finish for him to skip Cameron Greer, David Wilson and Joey Strickland to a 16-12 win.
WEST LOTHIAN IBC women doubled their wins in Division 1C of the league cup with a nerve-tingling 82-78 win over Bainfield at the Inveralmond stadium.
Wins for the rinks skipped by Ann Clark, Lily Sword and Wendy Purdie more than covered the defeat of Jennifer Sneddon by Mandy O'Donnell
Clark made telling space from 8-7 to 17-7 with a run of 1, 4, 3, 1 then skipped Irene Taylor, Isobel Lindsay and Catherine Howie to a 26-19 win over Kathryn Crombie.
Sword was impressive over the first seven ends to skip June Thorburn, Muriel Henderson and Jenifer Richardson into a 15-2 lead but life became tougher for them before settling for a 24-19 win over Anna Anderson.
Purdie had mother Sandra at second in company with Beth Erskine and Jean McPherson and she skipped them to a last-gasp 20-19 win over Anne Watson, who had led 19-13.
Sneddon and her rink of Lucy Noon, Betty Tate and Helen Tully were always up against it and having trailed 12-3 lost 21-12 to Heather Stoddart, Susan Allan, Alison Ross and Mandy O'Donnell.
