MIDLOTHIAN rose magnificently to the occasion by inflicting an 18-shot defeat (83-65) on section A league leaders Blantyre in their indoor bowls Premier League match at Dalkeith.
Blantyre's third defeat in eight games diminished their one-time healthy points lead over Midlothian to just two with two more fixtures to fulfil bringing a strong glimmer of hope that the Dalkeith outfit can pip them at the post.
"The team produc
ed another strong performance to win on three of the four rinks and we now enter the festive season break with a brighter prospect of snatching the qualifying honours," said spokesman Frank Gray.
"We are away to Lanarkshire then at home to Paisley and must deliver in both and hope that Blantyre will shed at least a couple of points at home to Bainfield or away to Auchinleck."
Wins for the rinks skipped by Billy Peacock, Colin Walker and Willie Rankin more than kept Blantyre at bay and covered the single-figure defeat suffered by Sandy Knight, the deputising skip for David Peacock who is playing in the Hong Kong classic.
Both teams knew the stakes were high but it was Midlothian who hit the ground running with all four rinks doing their bit to throw down the gauntlet with a 39-20 domination of the first seven-end phase.
Blantyre are a hardy bunch though and showed real menace with a 29-17 fight back on the second phase. However, the home team often find a bit extra on the run in and Midlothian did just that to wrap up the points with a 27-16 response.
Peacock was the most successful of the four Midlothian skips and piloted Ronnie Duncan, David Salkeld and Drew Pearson to a 24-12 victory over John Docherty. A run of
2, 2, 2, 3, 2 thrust Peacock's rink into an 11-4 lead and provided the early inspiration to his watching fellow skips who then applauded a further run of 1, 5, 1 to move 20-7 ahead.
Walker did his best work over the second half of the match and stepped up the pace from 10-7 after ten ends and skipped Steven Currie, Scott Matthews and Lindsay Plenderleith to a 20-11 win over the rink of Alex Kelly.
Rankin looked to have lift off when carding a magnificent 7 to lead 11-4 but soon trailed 17-11 before storming back to skip Robert Campbell, David Munro and Martin Wyllie to a 25-21 victory over Iain McLean.
Knight and his rink of Calum Crawford, Ian Forbes and Kevin McDougall slipped from 9-5 up to 18-9 following a barren spell of seven ends and suffered a 21-14 defeat from Brian Irving's rink. However, it was little more than a consolation for the visitors.
