Parkside give Tanfield a tanning

The 2007 champions have made an excellent start to their campaign with 14 points from 18 banked over their first two games.

Last night’s victory at home followed up their 7-2 away triumph over Northern in the opening fixture.

Tanfield – the record six-times champions and last season’s runners up to Craigentinny – arrived with an 8-1 home win over Hillside under their belts but left Parkside with a sense of relief that they had salvaged two points.

Andy Sneddon delivered the sole Tanfield success but he was 10-4 down before skipping Alan Ross, Stuart Thompson and Robert White to a 20-13 win over Derek Smith.

Parkside held all the other aces however with the rinks skipped by Robert Donaldson, Paul Veitch and Alex Hurry all able to trump the best efforts of their respective oppositions.

Donaldson faced three against him at the ninth end but converted for a single to lead 7-5 then added 2, 1, 1, 1, to 12 before skipping Graeme Fraser, Steven Rennie and Willie Watson to a 17-6 win over Stuart Campbell.

Veitch carded 1, 4 to make telling space to 19-8 after 13 ends and cashed in on that superiority to skip Ian Fleming, Ewan Diven and Neil Watson to a 23-13 win over David Snodgrass. Hurry clashed with fellow Balgreen Open Singles champion Graeme McIntosh and trailed 15-12 before conjuring up a magic 4, 2, 2 finish to skip Hally Cockburn, Andy Hargan and Danny Jackson to a 20-15 victory.

Craigentinny edged a 5-4 home victory over Northern.

Willie McDonald and Andrew Caldwell were the hero skips for the defending champions while Jamie Reid and Mike Burns delivered the goods for the Northern.

McDonald answered pressure at 11-9 up after ten ends with a run of 4, 6, 2, 1 that saw him skip Daniel Gormley, Scott Duncan, and Andrew Jeffrey to a 24-13 win over Gordon Wilson Jnr.

Caldwell skipped Darren Smith, Grant McLaren, and Kevin Hunter to a 14-9 win over Davie Scott. A single at 15-15 allowed Burns to skip Stuart Raeburn, Walter Murray and Ian Miller to success over Ian Patterson. Jamie Reid was returning to his former hunting ground and skipped Graeme Prentice, Hugh Hilson and Stan Christie to a 15-12 win over Kevin McFarlane.

Queensberry served up the shock result of the night with a 5-4 away win over Hillside thanks to wins for Alan Watson and Brian Pollard, while Wardie won 5-4 at home to Pilrig.