Midlothian hit rich seam of form to leap up table

Published on Tuesday 4 November 2008 09:23

MIDLOTHIAN moved out of the immediate danger zone in the A Section of the indoor bowls Premier League with a commanding 29-shot victory (92-63) over Lanarkshire at Dalkeith.

It was only their second success in four games but enough to move them two points clear of Paisley and Lanarkshire and four clear of Bainfield.

There were wins for the rinks skipped by Willie Rankin, Colin Walker and Billy Peacock plus a peel for David Peacock as the team dominated all three phases.

Midlothian asserted their authority early doors with a 32-20 score on the first seven-end phase then they captured the second 27-19 before winning the third 33-24.

"This was a must-win fixture for us and I thought we produced a good, solid team performance to win with comfort," summed up Midlothian spokesman Frank Gray.

The top rink was skipped by Willie Rankin and his front three of Martin Wyllie, David Munro and Ian Brown who raced into an 8-1 lead over Robert Grant then triumphed 25-11 having late counts of 4 and 6.

Walker and his rink of Steven Currie, David McDougall and Lindsay Plenderleith were also top performers with a 28-15 win over Jim Meikle having added 5 and 3 to lead 10-3 then stretch from 10-7 to 20-7 with a run of 2, 3, 3, 1 and 1.

Billy Peacock made a tremendous start to skip Ronnie Duncan, David Salkeld and Drew Pearson into a 19-5 lead over Richard Gordon but they stumbled badly to come under pressure at 20-20 before replying with a double at the last.

Meanwhile, David Peacock made a disappointing start to trail 14-4 but staged a great fight back to skip Calum Crawford, Kevin McDougall and AJ Knight into a 17-16 lead before settling a 17-17 peel with John Simpson.

BAINFIELD may be struggling at the basement of their Premier League section but the national selectors have shown faith in the quality of their junior brigade by naming four of them in the Scottish Under-25 trial team.

It is no great surprise that current caps Paul O'Donnell, Chris Steven, Craig Moss and Colin Hutchison are all heading for Abbeyview in Dunfermline, on Sunday, November 23.

O'Donnell, Steven and Hutchison have all been picked at skip while Moss lines up at third.

Calum Logan (third) and Cameron Greer (second) will represent West Lothian, while Derek Oliver (skip) is forward for East Lothian and Steven Currie (lead) for Midlothian.