Carrick Knowe to meet Craigentinny in Top Ten final

Carrick Knowe have joined Craigentinny in the final of the Edinburgh Top Ten Championship having been taken right down to the wire in a 5-3 victory over Summerside in their semi-final at Goldenacre.

Colin Mitchell played a key role for Carrick Knowe

Wins in the Fours and Pairs laid the foundations of match victory for Carrick Knowe but the hot favourites also needed a share of the points in the Triples to see a Summerside team that had scored a surprise win in the Singles.

All four disciplines were being closely contested approaching their respective finishes and, had Summerside managed to snatch a win in the Triples, then a 4-4 share of the points would have taken the match into the tie-break territory of shot aggregate then Singles result.

Summerside drew first blood as Peter Miller delivered a 21-19 win in 22 ends over Paul O’Donnell in the Singles. Miller took counts of 2, 3 that pushed him into an 11-6 lead and moved on to 13-8 before answering menace at 14-12 with a magic three to 17. O’Donnell, though, hit back with a 1, 4 that levelled the score. Miller broke his opponent’s momentum with a timely single to 18 but O’Donnell resumed with successive singles to cross 19-18. However, Miller emerged the victor by virtue of a 1, 2 finish to 21.

The Fours developed from a 10-11 cliffhanger in the favour of Summerside rink Mark Fyfe, Tam Abercrombie, Gavin Rogers and John Wilson after 12 of the 17 ends played. Darren Hush was at the helm for Carrick Knowe and he skipped Stephen Pringle, Johnny Priestley and John Ramsay to a run of 1, 3, 2 that set up a 16-12 victory which took the match score to 2-2.

In the Pairs, Carrick Knowe’s Colin Mitchell skipped Kevin Tennant to a 20-17 win over Norrie Chalmers and Kerr McKail.

The Carrick Knowe partnership had led 17-9 after 13 ends then answered growing danger at 17-13 with a three to 20.

The match result looked well sewn up with the Carrick Knowe Triple of John Mitchell Jnr, Graham Pringle and James Hogg holding a comfortable 14-8 lead over Alfie King, Paul Jeromson and Jim Currie. But Currie and Co carded a five to 13 on their penultimate end then just failed to snatch a victory that could have put the cat amongst the pigeons – finishing instead peels at 14-14.

Balerno is the host club for the final on Saturday, August 27.