Bowls: Midlothian pair lose final to defending champs
The climax to the event at Paisley IBC saw international colleagues Duncan and McDougall face an opening semi-final challenge against Laura Hall and Gail Notman of East Kilbride.
The Midlothian duo opened in strong fashion and took a 4-1 lead that progressed into an almost nailed-on first-set winning opportunity at 5-2 entering the last end.
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Hide AdHowever, East Kilbride conjuring up a magic count of three that forced the opening set into an extra-end decider – the outcome of which was a winning single to Midlothian.
An inspired response saw McDougall skip Duncan to a runaway 11-0 victory in the second set to clinch the match with a super run of 2, 4, 1, 2, 2.
The final brought a meeting against last year’s winners Leanne Furye and Caroline Ruxton of Arbroath after they had delivered a two-sets-to-nil win over Carol Condy and Janette Bray of Coatbridge in their semi-final.
Arbroath’s path into the final had also been endangered by the threat of a first set stumble, having had to pull out all of the stops to clinch their 6-5 win via an extra-end single. They went on to dominate the second set and won it 8-2.
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Hide AdThe final started badly for Midlothian in the shape of a 6-1 deficit after four ends but expectations soared with a spirited 2, 2 fightback to 5-6. However, a tension-filled last end saw Arbroath edge a single to win the set 7-5.
Hopes of a second-set revival were dashed as the experienced Midlothian partnership only managed to count one single in a 6-1 loss.