Thrilling climax ahead as Midlothian edge out E&L

Published on Tuesday 9 June 2009 10:06

DEFEAT from Midlothian at Polton in the East section of the Cities & Counties Bowls Championship was Edinburgh & Leith's second in a row, causing them to nosedive out of the top two qualifying places.

E&L suffered a 117-111 defeat that pushed them down to fourth place alongside Midlothian and East Lothian on the six-point mark. Midlothian's win has pushed them up to second place on shot margin, just two points adrift of West Lothian and, with two fixtures remaining, a thrilling climax is in prospect.

At Polton, wins for the rinks skipped by Robert Marshall, Paul O'Donnell and Billy Mellors put 32 shots in the bank for E&L but they were wiped out by the combined defeat of James Hogg, Colin Mitchell and Mally Higgenbotham.

The hero figures for Midlothian were Craig Hodge, Colin McFarlane and David Peacock. Colin Walker was a late call off and Billy Peacock was stepped up to skip.

Midlothian set the pace over the first seven-end phase to capture it 41-27 but E&L kept themselves in the picture with a 49-39 reversal on the second before the home team edged the third 37-35.

The down side for E&L came with the damaging 27-shot defeat inflicted by Craig Hodge on John Ramsay, Jason Ronaldson, Darren Hush and James Hogg. Hodge producing a spectacular run of 2, 3, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 5, 1, 1, to skip Martin Wylie, Arron Clinkscales and Jim Gibson from 7-4 to 30-4 and scoring at 15 of the 21 ends. Colin McFarlane produced a 1, 1, 3, 2 finish to skip Ronnie Duncan, Jim Farquhar and Lindsay Plenderleith to an 18-15 win over Danny Jackson, Frank O'Reilly, Paul Veitch and Colin Mitchell.

David Peacock traded on an 8-1 lead to skip Tom Moffat, Jamie Mitchell and Scott Briggs to a 19-14 win over Andrew Caldwell, David Scott, Graham Munro and Mal Higgenbotham.

Robert Marshall was the top star for E&L, skipping Dougie Martin, Jamie Gracie and Alan Brown to a 34-12 win over Calum Crawford, Scott Matthews, Drew Pearson and Billy Peacock.

Billy Mellors came from 12-2 down to 19-12 up then skipped Kevin Hunter, Scott Rogers and Colin Hutchison to a 25-18 win over Eddie Adams, Brian Gardiner, Ramsay Blair and Willie Rankin.

Paul O'Donnell tipped the scales with a 1, 2, 1 finish to skip Alan Trotter, Darren McKenny and Robert Donaldson to an 18-15 win over Steven Currie, Dougie Russell, John Stevenson and Ian Brown.

&#149 THOMAS MANN, the No.2 seed from Newbridge, is through to the semi-finals of the West Lothian Junior Open having recovered from 7-0 down to beat Colin Cruickshanks of Pumpherston, 21-15 at East Calder.

His next opposition comes in the shape of Greg Baldry of East Calder, who battled to a 21-17 win over Mark McCullagh of Buchan Park. Steven Forrest, the No.8 seed from Kirkliston, triumphed 21-7 over Scott McMaster of Broxburn while Cameron Greer, the No.5 seed from Bathgate, dealt a 21-12 exit to Andrew Semple of Oakbank.