By Clive Lindsay

King won silver at the Commonwealth Games

Wild card Stewart Anderson will look for a home win when he faces England's eighth seed, Mervyn King, in Saturday's final of the Scottish Open.

The Scot defeated compatriot and 13th seed David Gourlay, the former world champion, 10-3 9-4 at Dewars Centre.

King beat fellow Englishman and qualifier Rob Paxton 11-3 6-6 in his semi-final in Perth.

Anderson said: "Merv is a class player. Commonwealth silver medallist just about sums it up, but I'm confident."

The luck of the draw means that Anderson will be playing with green bowls, with his opponent in red, and the Scot hopes it does not prove a bad omen.

"I felt really comfortable there with the red bowls," he told BBC Scotland after his win over Gourlay.

"I prefer to be in red, but I am in green and hopefully the run continues."

I was just waiting for Stewart to play a bad end and he didn't do that through the whole game David Gourlay

For Gourlay, who had earlier knocked out reigning world champion Greg Harlow, the green bowls proved to be unlucky in his semi-final.

"We both prefer playing with the red bowls and it can be a big factor, but I won with the green bowls earlier in the week, so it is no excuse," he said.

"I was just waiting for Stewart to play a bad end and he didn't do that through the whole game."

Gourlay took a single at the opening end, but Anderson was in control after that, although the more experienced man did pull back with a double to draw level at 3-3 in the first set.

King was also dominant in his semi-final, following up his defeat of world number one and top seed Paul Foster by winning the first set comfortably before progressing by tying the second.

"I don't know how I do it," he said of his hot streaks. "The way Rob has been playing this week, you have got to play that way.

"It was just fantastic. I just try and play my best bowls and so far, so good."

Paxman had the consolation of a £4,000 prize for having four touching bowls in one end but admitted that he had no answer to King in his present form.

"I don't think that anyone would have won that one against him," he said of the first set.

"When someone comes out the blocks like Merv did, you have just to keep going and I managed to put some pressure on."

Paxman is now hopeful of breaking into the world's top 16 but faces competition from Anderson, who lost to Harlow in last season's world final, in that goal.

"That's any qualifiers' aim and there's a few of us close to it," added the Englishman.

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