Bowls: Weather suspends crucial relegation battle decider

Published on Wednesday 10 August 2011 12:14

The relegation battle in Division 1 of the Alpha Trophies- sponsored Edinburgh Bowling League remains a cliffhanger after a waterlogged green caused last night's match between Goldenacre and Leith to be abandoned.

Leith are fighting to preserve their top-flight status and when rain stopped play they were leading foot of the table - and already relegated - Goldenacre 5-4, an away result that wouldn't have saved them from the drop.

The reason was that they came into last night's final round of matches sharing the 51-point mark with Hillside and the club known as the great survivors finished their 14-match programme with a 6-3 home win over Northern.

Northern were also in the danger zone, and in a dramatic set of circumstances, they managed to bank the three points needed to keep them above Hillside and therefore safe from the drop.

"Leith have a better shot bank than us so only need to take six points away from Goldenacre when that match is resumed some night next week, so we face an anxious wait to find out our fate one way or another," said BJ Smith for Hillside.

The Hillside camp were left frustrated by their result as despite three winning rinks, they still lost the valuable bonus point to a disastrous 29-10 defeat for Colin Bell at the hands of Graeme Prentice, Hugh Hilson, Mike Burns and Jamie Reid.

"Colin and his normally solid rink of Adam Boath, Gus Robertson and Kyle Newall trailed 23-3 after 12 ends with their losses including two 4s and two 5s so they got pelters from us in the clubhouse, but that's bowling for you," added Smith.

Smith had played his part by finishing 3, 1, 2 to skip Peter Stitt, George Scott and Graeme Laidlaw to a 19-10 win over David Scott while a 2, 2 finish saw Jimmy Nisbet, John Newall Kevin Moncur and Gary Muir beat Gordon Wilson jun 17-12.

Win No.?3 for the home side came with Brian Irving recovering from 12-9 down to skip Brian Muir, John Kennedy and John Simpson to a 16-13 triumph over George Prentice.

The situation at Goldenacre saw Jim Hutchison of the home side skipping Stuart Brown, Lawrence Robertson and Mark Hogg into a 13-10 lead after 14 ends against Adam Davidson.

And Malky Thomson was also causing Leith trouble, having skipped Bill Lee, Andrew Mackay and Neil Carr into a 13-10 lead over Craig Ramsay, after 13- ends.

Robert Wood was flying for Leith, however, and when play was stopped after 13 ends he had skipped Duncan Davidson, George Fitzgerald and Archie Davidson into a 13-7 lead over Nicky Brown.

Drew Dodds only managed to complete ten ends but is bringing hope to Leith having skipped Bob Scott, Jim Sim and Ally Mackay into a 10-8 lead over Colin Hutchison.

Craigentinny were already home and dry as champions for the third season in a row so their 5-3 defeat away to Tanfield was of no consequence, while Parkside's 5-4 win over Queensberry completed good campaigns for both clubs.