Bowls: Portobello on song in the Borders

“It was a strong team performance on an away carpet that put a smile on our faces as we had three winning rinks and a peel that was shaping up as a fourth success until caught on the line,” said spokeswoman Isabel Anderson.

Anderson skipped her rink to a 23-shot victory and supporting wins came from Barbara Kay and Rita Reid while Cathy Jones finished all square.

The opening seven-end phase was tightly fought with Portobello just doing enough to edge it 31-29 but a powerful acceleration on the second phase saw the visitors dominate it  42-15 then they remained firmly in command to take the third, 36-21.

“It was a day and a game that went our way in an inspiring manner as our team score was boosted by two counts of 5, 6, and 7 and you can also imagine how dispiriting that would be for what was a very sporting Tweedbank opposition,” said Anderson.

Anderson – who won’t be able to complete the whole campaign as she is off soon to be a spectator at the World Championships in Australia – enjoyed three astonishing highlights in her game as she carded one six and two sevens.

She made her initial mark by skipping Izzie Dixon, Zandra Kinnear and Margaret Murray into a 20-2 lead after eight ends having carded a 7 at the sixth and a 6 at the eighth then included another magnificent 7 at the 19th in a 34-11 romp against the luckless Gail Lindores.

Kay also served up a tremendous double-figure winning performance having included two mighty counts of 5 as she skipped Jackie McFarlane Nan Lake and Cathy Ward into a 21-7 lead after 11 ends over Jackie Ormiston.

The pace in the second half of the match did slowed but did contain another exciting moment of registering a super 6 en route to clinching a 34-17 victory. Reid found the initial stages of her match much tougher and by the end of the 13th she and her front three of Alison McDougall, Yvone Nicolson and Margaret Keenan trailed Pat Houston 14-11.

But a 2, 1, 3 fightback pushed Reid and Co into a 17-14 lead and with still five ends to go they battled on to a 21-17 win.

Jones and her rink of Cathy McLeod, Helen Gray and Nicola Barclay became engaged in a terrific battle that saw peels called at 12-12 (from 3-11),  13-13, and 18-18 then at 20-18 up they lost 2 at the last to be peeled by Eliz Brydon.