Bowls: Parkside beat Craigentinny to keep title hopes alive

Parkside have set alight the climax to the title race in Division 1 of the Alpha Trophies-sponsored Edinburgh Bowling League by scoring a 7-2 victory over pre-match leaders and defending champions Craigentinny in last night’s penultimate round of fixtures.

It was a crucial top-of-the-
table clash between the two teams and the home win for Parkside was good enough to help them leapfrog Craigentinny into top position, albeit by a single point.

“We played out of our skin 
tonight to get this result and it is a great one for us but the race for the title will go right down to the wire and we face a final trip to Wardie while Craigentinny are at home to Hillside,” said Parkside spokesman 
Robert Donaldson.

Wins for the rinks skipped by Alex Hurry, Paul Veitch and Donaldson combined to earn Parkside the bonus point, leaving the visitors, and three in a row champions, thankful that Willie McDonald managed to bank couple of valuable points.

“We have been in top form lately but were given a real roasting here tonight, however we are still in with a chance of capturing the title for what would be a record equalling sixth time”, said Craig McCall for Craigentinny.

Hurry was back on song, after some dips this season, to call the tune against Andrew Caldwell, picking up strongly from 11-10 to skip Halley Cockburn Andy Hargan and Danny 
Jackson to a 24-12 victory.

Veitch powered from 9-7 down to 17-9 up with a run of 3, 1, 1, 1, 3, 1 then cashed in to skip Ian Fleming, Ewan Diven and Neil Watson to a 17-11 win over Andy Jeffrey.

Donaldson skipped Graeme Fraser, Willie Watson and Bob Ramsay to a hard-fought 21-17 win over Kevin McFarlane. Ramsay was prominent under pressure with a turn of the jack for a 4 to 19-13 then a noser for a single to 20-17.

Derek Smith was set to make it a clean sweep for the home side when 16-14 up and holding 6, but McDonald killed the lot for a single then added 1, 3, 1, 1 to skip Daniel Gormley Scott Duncan and Gary Nisbet to a 21-16 win for the visitors.

Meanwhile, the foot of the 
table battle between Hillside, the great survivors, and visitors Wardie saw the home side keep their hopes of a miracle escape alive with a 9-0 victory.

Other results: Pilrig 8, Northern 1; Queensberry 0, Tanfield 9.