Champions Carrick Knowe back on top

Defending champions Carrick Knowe have surged back to the top of the Scotmid sponsored Water of Leith 1st Sixteens League table having powered to a 5-0 win at home to Beechwood in fixture 11 of the 18-match programme.

The result was no great surprise against a Beechwood team that occupies the bottom rung of the league table and the reward became significant as it pushed Carrick Knowe into a single-point lead over Sighthill.

Sighthill may have dropped to second spot but did their challenge proud with an impressive 3½-1½ win on away territory against a very competitive Slateford team that came into the match holding fourth position.

Defeat has probably chocked off Slateford’s hopes of establishing themselves as a serious contender for the title as they have dropped to fifth place having been overtaken by Currie who walloped their neighbour club Balerno 5-0.

Bainfield held on to third place and kept the front two firmly in their sights with a 5-0 win at home to Colinton while a middle-of-the-table battle saw Gorgie Mills edge a fine 3-2 win away to Juniper Green.

Carrick Knowe are able to field an awesome line-up of first-class skips in the shape of Colin Mitchell, Richard Tough, Darren Hush and James Hogg who fired on all cylinders to put Beechwood without mercy to the sword.

Tough made it hard going for his opposite number Keith Rutherford having doubled his tally of shots to 14 with a magnificent count of 7 at the eighth end to lead 15-5 then he added 1, 2, 2, 5 to 24. It continued to be one-way traffic as Tough skipped Ian McKenna, his brother Colin Tough and Craig Aitken to a thumping 30-7 victory that was the most resounding result of the night.

Hush kept Brain Canney quiet with an early run of 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, to lead 8-1 then at 11-6 he added a super count of 6 that inspired him to skip Andy Beath, his father Rab Hush and Andy Blair to a 24-12 victory.

Mitchell clashed with former E&L stalwart Tom Headspeath and skipped Kevin Tennant, Robert Mitchell and Johnny Priestley to a 21-10 win. Hogg skipped Chris Crawford, John Mitchell and Graham Pringle to a 22-11 win over Kevin Prior.

n THE finals of the West Lothian BA championships due to be played at South Queensferry last night fell victim to the heavy rain.