Bowls: Porty boost morale for vital home tie with West Lothian

Tweedbank prop up the table with just two points from seven matches so it was a formbook victory for Portobello. However, in delivering their fourth victory of the campaign the visitors were bouncing back from a heavy drubbing at East Lothian.

“It is good that our team morale remained intact after losing our last match by 54 shots and the bonus is that we are just two points adrift of leaders West Lothian and share second spot with East Lothian and Bainfield,” said a spokeswoman.

Portobello’s challenge for the qualifying honours will be handicapped by a shot margin of minus 24 compared to the plus figures of 73, 174, and 36 registered in the name of West Lothian, East Lothian, and Bainfield, respectively.

However, they do have home advantage against West Lothian this weekend while another interesting fixture is Bainfield versus East Lothian.

Wins on the rinks skipped by Harriet Munro, Rita Reid and Isabel Anderson made it an encouraging team performance against Tweedbank as the defeat of Barbara Kay was only a narrow one.

Portobello led from start to finish having begun with a 20-2 blitz over the first three ends and they were good value for the 33-17 capture of the first seven-end phase. Tweedbank did offer some resistance, winning the second phase 30-24 but it was a wake up call that Portobello answered by dominating the third and final phase, 33-15.

Munro made the major contribution by skipping Helen Gray, Jessie Wallace and Cathy Jones to a 30-12 win over Jackie Ormiston having been held at 9-9 before producing a spectacular acceleration of 21 shots for the loss of a 3 on the run in.

Reid skipped Yvonne Nicolson, Margaret Keenan and Nicola Barclay into a 13-1 lead after seven ends then answering a growing menace at 13-9 in positive style to triumph 26-14 over Marie Todd.

Anderson also made a good start to lead 7-0 but at 11-11 needed a 5 to regain the initiative, skipping Jackie McFarlane, Zandra Kinnear and Margaret Murray to a 22-20 win over Pat Houston. Kay and her rink of Helen Dougall, Allison McDougall and May Brownlee slipped from 7-7 to 7-13 and remained adrift in a 16-12 defeat from Ella Brydon.

Meanwhile, Nicola Barclay, the 2007 National Junior Singles champion from Portobello, has been named in the senior international trial list and will be joined at West Lothian IBC on Sunday, December 11 by six other Lothian players – Emma Brown of East Lothian, Lorraine Malloy of Balbardie, Wendy Purdie of West Lothian and Midlothian trio Agnes Melrose, Sandra McLeish and Gaynor Blair.