Bowls: Portobello manage draw in spite of late collapse

Published on Tuesday 8 December 2009 08:52

PORTOBELLO blew their 100 per cent record with an alarming late collapse at home to Headwell but the Division 2B leaders of the national indoor bowls leagues escaped with an 82-82 peel so remain undefeated after seven games.

Win No.7 looked to be well and truly in the bag with Porty holding a 17-shot lead with just three ends to play across the carpet but the roof suddenly caved in as Headwell exerted tremendous pressure to card 20 shots for the loss of 3.

"We could have got into a lather about it after the match but opted for the calmer option of accepting that a peel still served our purpose of winning promotion well enough," summed up Porty spokesman Andrew Caldwell.

Caldwell and his teammates accepting the fact that their four-point lead and massive 110-shot advantage over second-placed Headwell made good reading with just three fixtures remaining.

Wins for the rinks skipped by Ian Fleming and David Brown plus a peel for John McDermott would normally have triggered the victory celebrations, however, on this occasion the normally reliable Caldwell was a heavy loser.

The result, though, did reflect a good enough team performance considering that no less than six regulars in the shape of Chris Steven, Darren McKenny, Stuart Betts, George Johnstone, Craig McCall and Donald Forsyth were all absentees. Portobello hit the ground running and raced into a commanding 27-shot lead with a 42-15 domination of the first seven-end phase but it then became downhill all the way with Headwell capturing the second 36-19 and the third 31-21.

The major feature in the closing stages was the sensational collapse of McDermott who had skipped Daniel Gormley, BJ Smith and Euan Murray into a 24-13 lead that included a magnificent count of 7 on the eighth end against C Watson.

But Watson had a severe sting in his tail and McDermott and Co suffered agonies as their Headwell opposition stung them with a 1, 2, 4, 4 finish to snatch a 24-24 peel and create panic in the Porty ranks.

McDermott's alarming fate coming on top of the formidable Jim Roxburgh skipping his rink to a devastating 25-10 win over the home side's Jamie Reid, Bill Ramsay, Gary Nisbet, and Caldwell.

There was no stopping Ian Fleming, however, and the son of a two-times Tait Trophy champion set the scene with a mighty 5 on the first end then included a second at the 17th as he skipped David McLeod, John Lockhart and Willie Hogg to a 27-15 success over JJ Watson.

Brown surrendered a 9-2 lead but from peels at 9 picked up the pace with a run of 4, 1, 1, 3 then used that 18-9 cushion to skip Kerr McKail, Andrew Davie and Robert Wood to a 21-18 win over C Martin.