Bowls: Slateford close in on leaders with win at Carrick Knowe

Slateford served up a major shock when they visited table-toppers Carrick Knowe in the Scotmid-sponsored Water of Leith 1st Sixteen bowls league and came away with a 4-1 victory.

Carrick Knowe remain the early pacesetters but Slateford are now only 1.5 points adrift and defending champions Sighthill a further point back.

Sighthill suffered a 3-2 away defeat at Beechwood while Gorgie Mills (H) and Juniper Green cut each other up with a 3-2 win for the home side. Balerno celebrated a 4-1 home win over Colinton while Bainfield won by the same score at Currie.

Wins for the rinks skipped by Gordon Ramsay, Andrew Ramsay, and Mike Fraser made it a great team performance for a Slateford team whose only setback came with a narrow defeat for Robert Marshall.

James Hogg and his front-three of John Mitchell, Willie Kirkpatrick and Graham Pringle were in the driving seat at 11-7 but a 1, 1, 2, 2 and 4 saw Gordon Ramsay skip Matt Aitchison, Rob Stewart, and Craig Edgar to a 17-12 win.

Andrew Ramsay was challenged at 7-1 down and responded with a spell of 1, 4, 2 and 2 to cross 10-7 then he skipped Louis Beaton, Jimmy Henderson, and Ronnie Ramsay to a 17-12 win over Colin Mitchell. Fraser was much harder pressed against Richard Tough and went right down to the wire with a double at the last tipping the scales for him to skip Alan Brash, Mike Rae, and Brian McCann to a 12-11 win.

Carrick Knowe avoided a whitewash with Darren Hush carding a 6 at the first then just doing enough to skip Andy Beath, Stephen Pringle, and John Priestley to an 18-16 win over Marshall.

Meanwhile, Edinburgh & Leith travel to Port Seton tomorrow to take on East Lothian in the second round of fixtures in the Scottish Cities and Counties Championship for The Hamilton Trophy. The visitors make two enforced changes with John Bell (Parkside) and Scott Rogers (Pilrig) replacing Craig McCall and George Kirk as a new front-end for Paul Veitch and James Hogg. East Lothian expect a boost from the return of former cap Scott Dodds, who takes over at skip from Stephen Cochrane, who moves to third. Ewan Fallen continues for the unavailable Craig Valentine and Glen Blair stands down. Midlothian promote Colin Bonner from third to skip in a switch with George Yuill for the match against West Lothian.