Bowls: Majestic Marshall ousts Mitchell in Sighthill epic

Both players are acknowledged singles experts and an epic confrontation was produced with the ding-dong battle for supremacy ended by an explosive 2, 3 finish from Marshall, who won 21-18.

Marshall, 45, made the early pace to lead 9-1 but the Slateford champion came under pressure as his 36-year old Carrick Knowe counterpart came storming back to look the likely winner at 17-14 up.

Mitchell lay 4 for game at the next end but Marshall thrilled the watching crowd with a last bowl draw for a life-saving single to 15 then went on to peel the game at 18-18.

Marshall was back under pressure with two shots against him at the next but he expertly drove both out of the head for a two-shot conversion then added a third with his final delivery to win the battle of the big guns.

Andrew McKendrick carried the Currie banner forward with a 21-10 win over Stuart Isbister of Sighthill at Mayfield having stepped up a gear from 7-5 to accelerate into a 20-7 lead.

Alan Brown is a past course and distance winner and the 47-year old champion of Gorgie Mills came racing off a 7-11 pace with an unbroken run of ten ends that dealt a 21-11 exit to Gilbert Stuart of Caledonian at Carrick Knowe.

Merchiston champion Colin Cochrane crushed the luckless Mark Inglis of Colinton Mains, 21-2 in just 12 ends at Corstorphine.

Play in the Junior Singles saw Craig Edgar of Slateford conjure up a magic finish of 2, 2, 3, 2 to clinch a 21-11 win over Nick Priestley of Gorgie Mills at West End while Russell Wilson of Juniper Green beat Darren Munro of Caledonian, 21-5 at Slateford.

John Wright of Whitehouse and Grange lived extremely dangerously at Coltbridge where he led David McNeil of Balerno 17-8 but collapsed to 20-17 down before escaping from jail with a spectacular count of four.

Murray Baillie of West End always held the edge over his Mayfield opponent at Caledonian to lead 20-17 but lost three singles on the trot then faced game against until producing a last-bowl draw to win 21-20.

The Carrick Knowe partnership of Darren Hush and Richard Tough made a great start to lead Davy Ross and Grant Wilson of Juniper Green 7-0 at Braid in the Pairs and went on to triumph 18-10.

Their next opposition will come from Ray Dorans and Donnie Gilbertson of West End who soon led 14-2 and went to beat Lawrie Atkins and Colin Wood of Lutton Place, 21-12 at Parkside.

Parkside duo Darren Grant and Willie Watson crushed Jimmy Ross and Gary Purdie of Bainfield 17-1 in tricky conditions at Merchiston and they next play Alan Trotter and Alan Scott of Sighthill.

Bowls legend David McGill – the national singles champion back in 1976 – still likes to create a stir and he did just that by skipping Eric Melvin and Ron Fenton to a 19-13 win over Parkside stars Derek Smith, Paul Veitch and Robert Donaldson at Ardmillan.

Slateford trio Dougie Martin Bill Herd and Gordon Ramsay were 23-7 winners over Tipperlinn at Mayfield. And a highlight from the Fours saw Archie Drummond, Bob Goodall, Jim Boyle and Jim McNiven of Coltbridge convert a 10-1 lead into a 17-12 win over Merchiston at West End.