Willie is record breaker with third triples title

GIFFORD'S Willie Wood and David Peacock from Danderhall wrote themselves into the record books of the world outdoor championships when they became the first players and Scotland became the first team to retain the triples title at the Burnside club in Christchurch, New Zealand earlier today.

However, the final against Fiji's Samuela Tuikiligana, Curtis Mar and Keshwa Goundar wasn't for the faint-hearted as the Scottish supporters were put through the mill before the trio claimed the gold medals.

With Wayne Hogg at lead the Scots got off to a brilliant start and raced to a 12-2 after six ends and then stretched that to 15-4 five ends later and looked to be coasting to the title.

However, someone forgot to give Fiji the script and they fought tooth and nail to secure the next six ends, which brought them back to one shot off the pace at 15-14 playing the last, where the relieved Scots clinched the vital single they needed.

It was a moment to savour for Scottish legend Wood. Only a few months shy of his 70th birthday, the "Wizard from Gifford", who is playing in these championships for an amazing the ninth successive time, made it his third gold medal in the triples in the last four stagings. He won the first with Kirkliston's Kenny Logan and George Adrain from Dreghorn in Ayrshire in 1996 at Adelaide and then last year with Houldsworth's Jim McIntyre and Peacock at skip.

And with the fours event still to be played in Christchurch, that

brings Wood's tally of world medals to four gold, four silver and three bronze and, just for good measure, he has added the Leonard Trophy gold for the world team title four times.

'This is definitely one of the proudest moments of my life," admitted Wood later. 'We played well as a unit through the qualifying stages and then the knock-out rounds and supported each other well. We all did what we we're good at and it was a solid team performance, even if we did go AWOL over six of the last seven ends."

At the indoor singles world championships at Potters in Norfolk, Scottish supporters also had to survive more than a few anxious moments as defending champion Alex Marshall had to go to a best of three tie-break before edging the verdict in his second round match against 29-year-old Australian qualifier Ceri Ann Davies.

He eventually won 6-4, 6-8, 2-0 to become the first player to book a berth in the quarter finals.

Both players matched each other bowl for bowl with Marshall admitting later "What a bowling spectacle that was. She was absolutely awesome. There were several times in the match that I thought I was going to be her third victim. I just didn't have a clue what length to play because she was nailing it everywhere I put it and can hold here head up high after that performance."