Bowls: Portobello's promotion bid gathers momentum

Published on Wednesday 28 October 2009 09:07

PORTOBELLO'S mission to gain promotion from the B section of Division 2 continues to gain force after a 40-shot away win (102-62) over Allander kept them un-defeated after three games.

It was a comprehensive team performance, with wins on the three rinks skipped by Davy Brown, Ian Fleming, and John McDermott plus a peel for Andrew Caldwell. "It's great that we have rattled up a hat trick of wins but it is too early in the programme for us to have opened up a meaningful gap so we remain under pressure to keep up the good work," said Caldwell.

Caldwell understands pressure as he had to cope with the devastating loss of 6, 4, 5 in the space of six ends against Allander before skipping Jamie Reid, Donald Forsyth and Craig McCall to a face-saving 25-25 peel.

Brown though won the major plaudits from the Porty camp as he blazed a tremendous 21-0 trail en route to skipping Daniel Gormley Kerr McKail and George Johnstone to a 27-9 win.

Fleming, as the stand in for Stuart Betts, skipped Robert Wood, Ewan Murray and Willie Hogg to a 31-18 win while the rink of Davy McLeod, John Lockhart, BJ Smith and McDermott contributed a 19-10 triumph. Meanwhile, play in the B section of the Premier League provided a second away shock for national title holders East Lothian in the shape of a 72-61 defeat from Aberdeen that left the four-in-a-row champions four points adrift of leaders Blantyre.

Paul Foster's four-shot win was the sole success achieved by an East Lothian team that saw Alex Marshall battle hard to earn a peel but suffer five and 10 shot defeats on the rinks skipped by Graham Robertson and Willie Wood respectively.

Midlothian have been challenged by a tough opening programme and their latest 76-60 away defeat at Prestwick has left the Dalkeith outfit four points off the pace in the A section of a Premier League led jointly by West Lothian and Prestwick.

Graeme Archer produced a good double-figure win but the rinks skipped by David Peacock, Billy Peacock, and Willie Rankin all lost.

Archer skipped Calum Crawford, David Salkeld and Ian brown to a 19-9 win. David Peacock skipped Martin Wyllie, Robert Trencj Jun and Lindsay Plenderleith into a battling 14-13 lead but slipped to a 20-16 defeat from P Boyd. Billy Peacock and his rink lost 18-13 to Colin Smith, while Rankin suffered a 29-12 defeat from D Boyd.