Bowls: Tanfield's Alpha males bounce back

It's a result that brings hopes of a revival of fortune for a club that celebrated its last title success in 2006 and it will also be welcomed by defending champions Craigentinny as Parkside are seen as chief rivals for the title.

Craigentinny only managed to scrape a 5-4 win over Queensberry last night but it was an away fixture and they increased their championship lead to eight points over Parkside. They are nine ahead of Tanfield.

Hillside are the great survivors of the top league and it is usually thanks to a strong home record, however, last night they lifted themselves out of the relegation zone with a spectacular 9-0 away win over Goldenacre.

Northern are the new faces in Division 1 and have made an encouraging start with last night's 5-4 away win over Leith pushing them four points ahead of their victims and now joint bottom Goldenacre.

Wins for the rinks skipped by Graeme McIntosh, Stuart Campbell and former Tait Trophy champion Andy Sneddon that brought Tanfield success.

Sneddon skipped Stuart McKean, Ally Thompson and David Snodgrass from 3-1 down to 19-3 up in a seven-end purple patch and defeated Bob Donaldson's rink 26-13.

Campbell skipped Stuart Thompson, Derek McLean and Scott Wood from 4-4 into a 17-9 victory over Paul Veitch.

McIntosh made a blitz start to skip Keith McLachlan, Willie Paul and Alex Thompson into a 12-1 lead then held on grimly to score a 15-12 win over Derek Smith.

Parkside were kept on the map by Alex Hurry who was in top form skipping Graham Fraser, David Moran and Willie Watson to an 18-12 victory over Mal Higgenbotham.

Craigentinny were best served at Queensberry by Kevin McFarlane who was boosted by a 7 at the second end and went on to skip Stuart Betts, Gary Nisbet and Gordon Bold to a 27-13 win over Frank O'Reilly. Wins for the rinks skipped by Davy Scott and Jamie Reid tipped the scales for Northern at Leith.