Bowls: High-flying Bainfield ladies see off Teviotdale with ease

The high-flying ladies of Bainfield continue as joint leaders in the C section of the national league following a spectacular 93-38 win over Teviotdale at the Hutchison Crossway Stadium.

The massive 55-shot margin served as an extra boost to the Bainfield campaign as their new bank balance of 92 shots puts them above current chief rivals West Lothian, whose tally is 64.

West Lothian haven’t featured as a threat at the top end of the table for several seasons but continued to spice up their latest campaign with a sizeable 105-71 win over Tweedbank at Livingston.

City rivals Portobello gifted Bainfield an unexpected bonus in the race to capture the top-qualifying place as they inflicted an excitingly narrow 83-81 defeat on defending champions East Lothian.

East Lothian will remain a danger but at the halfway stage of the league trail the joint leaders by four points while Portobello are just two points off the pace so have kept themselves very much in the picture.

It was unusual and disappointing that Teviotdale could only field three rinks for the match against Bainfield, leading to the home club being automatically credited with an 8-0 success for the rink – due to be skipped by Anna Anderson – left sitting out.

Bainfield welcomed back former cap Anne Watson, who joined Isa Wilson and Kathryn O’Donnell as skips and in a strong performance all three contributed positive outcomes.

Wilson set off at a furious pace and included a mighty 5 at the ninth end as she skipped Dorothy Hunter, Jeanette Crawford and Hazel Crombie into a 19-1 lead over Charlotte Stitt then traded comfortably on the cushion to triumph, 30-9.

O’Donnell got off the mark with a 5 at the 4th end then pressed on to skip Eleanor Campbell, Anne Matthew and Susan Allan to a 31-12 win over Betty Gibson.

Watson set her game alight with a run of 3, 6, 1 and then a mighty 5 at the 14th to skip Susan Brown, Dorothy Barclay and Kathleen Barr to a 24-17 win over Caroline Hogarth.