Atlantic Bowls: Two golds, two silvers for Scotland in Cyprus

Scotland's men's team took gold

Scotland won gold in the women's fours and also took the men's overall team title at the Atlantic Bowls Championships in Cyprus.

But they had to settle for silver in the men's singles and men's fours.

Bex Craig, Lorraine Malloy, Stacey McDougall and Claire Johnston beat their Welsh counterparts 18-14.

Darren Burnett lost 21-15 to England's Jamie Walker, while Stewart Anderson, Neil Speirs, Paul Foster and Alex Marshall were beaten 15-14 by Jersey.

Scotland picked up medals in seven of the eight categories during the two weeks of competition in Cyprus.

It means that they have qualified a place for all eight events at the 2016 World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand, although it does not necessarily mean the players who won medals in Cyprus will be in the team.

Bowls Scotland high-performance manager Rhona Howie told BBC Scotland: "Our first goal of the Atlantic Championships was to qualify for the next year's World Championships and we achieved that in all eight disciplines.

"But also to go on and win seven out of eight medals was a great performance by the Scottish squad.

"The team produced some outstanding performances over the last fortnight, especially on the ladies' side.

"This is a new ladies' squad, just formed in September, so it really was a great achievement to see them perform so well and to win so many medals."

Scotland's women's fours team won their final in Cyprus

Last weekend, Craig and Johnston took bronze in the ladies' pairs after losing their semi-final against Cyprus.

However, they did even better as part of the women's fours, defeating Laura Daniels, Jess Sims, Kath Pearce and Anwen Butten of Wales in their final.

Johnston said: "That's the first time we have played as a four.

"We gelled well together and played together well. We just got stronger and stronger as the week went on.

"I was hoping to win a medal, whatever colour it may be. So I was delighted to get the bronze last weekend, and to get the gold a week later was phenomenal."

Also last weekend, Burnett, along with Stewart Anderson and Speirs, won gold in the men's triples, while Commonwealth Games gold medallists Foster and Marshall had to settle for silver in the men's pairs.

Foster and Marshall, who have both won several world indoor singles titles, were also unable to repeat their Glasgow 2014 success in the fours as their team was edged out by Greg Davis, Scott Ruderham, Cyril Renouf and Gus Hodgetts.

Burnett, the Scot who is ranked seventh in the world indoors and also took gold in the singles in Glasgow, was beaten this time by in-form Walker, who won England's national championship this year.