Bowls: Midlothian keep up the chase with win

Billy Peacock was in superb form for Midlothian IBC

Despite missing top guns Colin Walker and Ronnie Duncan – in World Pairs action at Potters Leisure Resort – Midlothian delivered a great show to lead from start to finish. They were just three shots ahead at 58-55 after 15 ends then just five at 67-62 after 17 but reached the comfort zone of 20 shots up (84-64) with a thrilling 8-1 and 9-1 acceleration. Midlothian came out on top in all three phases with figures of 30-21, 28-27 and 36-20.

Midlothian share top spot with Blantyre but are behind on shot difference by a mind-boggling 160.

In their two remaining matches, Midlothian host Lanarkshire and travel to Arbroath. Both games are ‘must-win’ while they’ll need Blantyre to drop points either at home to Paisley or away at West Lothian.

Paisley arrived with five wins out of seven and only two points adrift of the joint leaders so the defending champions had much to play for but they failed to cope with winning performances from Midlothian skips Billy Peacock, David Peacock and Sandy Knight.

Billy Peacock blazed the trail with an inspirational 24-shot victory, ably assisted by his front-three of Dougie Russell, Neil Linton and Danny McDougall. Billy and his rink stormed into a 17-0 lead after nine ends with a whirlwind run of 3, 2, 3, 2, 2, 4, 1, then answered the loss of a four with a six, three reply to lead 26-4. A drop in pace saw Peacock and Co closed to 32-18 after 17 ends but, finding a second wind, they fired up a grandstand finish of 3, 4, 3 to beat Davy Moffat 42-18.

David Peacock found himself one shot adrift (13-14) after 18 ends before skipping Jamie Macnab, Scott Matthews and Craig Hodge to a 4, (1), 5 finish to beat David Fisher 22-15. Knight helped ease pressure on Midlothian with a mighty count of five on end 16 to skip Ian Forbes, Ian Fleming and Lindsay Plenderleith into a 12-10 lead then they battled on to beat Colin Taggart 17-13.

Paisley’s Derek Stobbo inflicted a 22-13 defeat on the rink of Jack Macnab, Ian Brown, Andy Caldwell and Colin Macfarlane.