Bowls: Iain McLean and Robert Marshall lose Hong Kong Classic final

Scotland's Iain McLean and Robert Marshall had to settle for the runners-up spot in yesterday's final of the week-long Hong Kong Classic International Pairs title in Kowloon.

They qualified for the knock-out stages in fourth place and, in their quarter-final match, crushed Australia's Brett Wilkie and Terry Antram 21-10. They thenended the hopes of Ben Thomas and Stephen Harris from Wales 18-9 in the semi, while England's Sam Tolchard and Robert Newman beat two local clubs to set up their place in the title decider.

However, everything fell against the Scots and they lost 18-7 with Marshall admitting: "We certainly never got any luck. We can play a lot better than we did, but, in all fairness, they played better over the piece and deserved their victory." In the women's pairs event, Lynn Stein and Margaret Letham topped their section but lost to Malaysia in the quarter-finals 16-12. Malaysia then lost 26-11 to the Philippines, who were subsequently beaten by defending champions Kelsey Cottrell and Julie Keegan from Australia 16-15.

On the domestic scene, there are new leaders in each of the Premier Division sections of the Jack High Insurance National Indoor League.

Lanarkshire's 86-70 away win at Blantyre sees them go top of Section A by two points after previous leaders Paisley suffered an 82-60 defeat at Prestwick.

Midlothian won their Section B winner-take-all table topping away clash against former leaders East Lothian 67-60 and to take a two-point lead at the top ahead of the Meadowmill men. The Section leaders in Division 1 are Turriff, Alloa and Dumbarton with Buchan, Cumbernauld and Galleon leading the three sections in Division 2.