Home win has Portobello on target for promotion

Alloa are their nearest rivals in the promotion race and they kept their challenge going with a massive 101-49 home win over Teviotdale at the weekend.

Abbeyview have acquired several seasoned campaigners from their neighbouring Dunfermline club Headwell and visited Portobello with a real chance to leapfrog their way to the top of the table.

But winning performances from home skips Stevie McLeod and David Brown plus a peel by Alex Hurry tipped the scales in favour of Portobello.

The visitors signalled their menace by leading on three of the four rinks at the end of the first seven-end phase but their advantage was restricted to a single shot (23-22) by an 8-3 contribution from Hurry.

Portobello found their stride on the second phase, however, and tipped the match scales in their direction with a 33-25 score that was heavily influenced by an 11-3 input from Brown and a 10-6 from Stuart Betts.

The third and final phase would have developed into a tense situation for Portobello with a serious challenge for supremacy on three of their rinks but McLeod eased the pressure with a magnificent 11-1 contribution to a 28-22 scoreline.

McLeod emerged the hero for Portobello as he engaged a higher gear at 13-12 to skip Craig McCall, BJ Smith and Ian Fleming to a 24-13 win over Alan Bernard - the best result of the match.

Brown fuelled a rapid rise in the match temperature with a scorching run of 6, 2, 1, 2 to cross 10-7 then he skipped David McLeod, Andrew Davie and Euan Murray to a 22-17 success over Paul Brown.

Hurry was the early anchor for Porty as he steadied the ship by skipping Andy Binnie, Willie Paul and John McDermott into a 12-3 lead but instead of cruising home they encountered stormy waters and slipped to a 19-19 peel with Derek Walls.

Betts skipped John Shields, Roy Wood and Andrew Caldwell into a promising 12-7 lead but it was a false signal and they collapsed to 21-13 down before losing 21-18 to Stuart Pagan.

"Having tasted life in the Premier League we don't want to spend too much time in Division 2 and we will enter the New Year full of hope that we can climb back up to Division 1," said a Porty spokesman.