Midlothian come close to breaking Blantyre hearts

MIDLOTHIAN lost 101-73 at Blantyre in the indoor bowls Premier League A Division but the match was much closer than the scoreline suggests.

Ronnie Duncan and Colin Walker were two of the Midlothian skips

With Blantyre not having lost a home match in seven years, it was always going to be tough for the visitors.

The master scoreboard showed 61-59 in favour of Blantyre after 15 ends thereby raising hopes of Midlothian pulling off a miracle win. Even entering the 19th, the visitors were still in with a chance, behind 75-68. But the home side stormed to victory with a whirlwind finish of 8-5, 8-0, 10-0.

Midlothian played out of their skin to stay within three shots of Blantyre over the first seven ends (26-23) and sustained the pressure on by holding them to 33-33 in the middle section. But Blantyre then delivered a crushing 42-17 blow to a crumbling opposition.

It doesn’t make good reading that Midlothian lost on all four rinks but that was the end fate of Sandy Knight (-3), Colin Walker (-4), Billy Peacock (-7) and Ronnie Duncan (-14).

Duncan came into the match on the high of just being crowned Scottish Champion of Champions but perhaps, in company with Jamie Macnab, Keith Stables and John Stevenson, suffered a reaction in a 28-14 defeat that included the loss of 1, 4, 2, 1 to Stewart Anderson.

The late loss of 1, 4 saw Billy Peacock and his rink of Neil Linton, Craig Hodge and Scott Briggs lose 21-14 to Brian Irvine while the loss of 3, 5 cost Jack Macnab, Ian Fleming, Lindsay Plenderleith and Walker a cruel 27-23 defeat from Ian McLean.

Knight’s afternoon ended in nightmare having skipped Andy Caldwell, Scott Runciman and David Salkeld into a 22-15 lead but then conceding 2, 1, 1, 4, 2 in a 25-22 defeat from Jim McCann.