Bowls: Wales defy title hopefuls

England's hopes of recapturing the women's Home International Championship suff- ered a setback in Ayr yesterday when they could only draw their opening game 113-113 with Wales.

The former champions, who lost the title to Scotland last year, looked to have scraped a narrow win after trailing 45-21 after five ends and 67-43 at half-way.

They recovered to lead 113-108 with just one rink remaining before the Welsh skip, Judith Wason, produced the shot of the match with her last bowl against Doreen Hankin. That gave her a five for a 23-18 victory and tied the team scores.

The defending champions, Scotland, finished ahead on four of the six rinks as they comfortably beat Ireland 137-100. Top scorer Roberta Hutchison led the way with a 28-9 win over Maureen Fearon, while Sarah Gourlay defeated Chrissie O'Gorman 24-11, further wins coming from Liz Dickson and Joyce Lindores.