It was a bittersweet morning for Team Scotland at Broadbeach Bowls Club as the Men’s Pairs played Wales in the final, battling hard but losing the game in the last end, and walking away with a silver medal.

Twice-winners of the Men’s Pairs gold medal, Alex Marshall and Paul Foster cruised through to the final undefeated in the preliminary, quarter-final, and semi-final stages. But a third gold wasn’t to be for the pair, as they played a thrilling and intense final against their Welsh counterparts, Daniel Salmon and Marc Wyatt.

With the two teams neck-and-neck for the entire game, Marshall’s last bowl was unsuccessful in moving Wales from their winning position which saw the Scots go down 10-12.

Alex said: “It was a great final – but we’re obviously a bit disappointed. We dominated the first ten or eleven ends. Paul played some great bowls and I made a few good conversions. Wales came out really strong in the second half and it was the last few bowls which won the game.

“We came here to defend our title and while walking away with a silver medal isn’t the result we wanted, it’s still a brilliant result for Scotland.”

Paul added: “Wales were confident throughout and both teams really stuck in there right up until the last bowl was played. Naturally we are a little disappointed but we put up a great defence of our title and I’m glad we got to the final.

“We’re not going to be despondent about this – we’re going to bounce back and are looking forward to delivering in the Men’s Fours.”

Today saw the beginning of the preliminary stages for the players’ second disciplines: Men’s Fours, Women’s Pairs, Women’s Triples, and Men’s Singles.

In Para-Bowls, the B2/B3 Mixed Pairs beat the host nation 15-11, meaning they qualify for the semi-final event, where they will play Australia tomorrow at 16:01hrs (07:01hrs UK time).