LEAGUE leaders Craigentinny resumed normal service with a crushing 9-0 home win over bottom club Queensberry in last night's Division 1 programme of the Alpha Trophies-sponsored Edinburgh Bowling League.
Craigentinny last won the title in 2005 to add to their previous win in 1999 and are edging closer towards capturing the coveted Blue Riband of the EBL for a third time as they opened up a ten-point gap over closest rivals Parkside.
Parkside w
on the title in 2007 and finished runners-up to Pilrig last season and, although they are enjoying a period of consistency, they know last night's 5-4 home win over Hillside was actually a setback to their 2009 challenge.
"Hillside do represent a tough challenge but we needed a better result than we achieved in order to keep Craigentinny in our sights," said Parkside spokesman Robert Donaldson.
The action at Parkside saw healthy wins for the home rinks skipped by Willie Watson and Robert Donaldson that proved good enough to land the shot aggregate bonus point as the defeats of Alex Hurry and Paul Veitch were by narrow margins.
Watson was being well held at 9-7 up on BJ Smith after ten ends, however, the gap was stretched by a run of 3, 2, 1, 2 and he went on to skip Neil Watson (his son), Hally Cockburn and David Moran to a 21-8 victory.
Donaldson skipped Darren Grant, Jack Logan and Brian Salvona to an 18-11 win over Keith Gallacher that was highlighted by a space-making run of 3, 1, 1, 1, 2 from 8-9 to 16-9.
Hillside did damage to the Parkside cause, however, with Kevin Moncur breaking from 6-6 to 12-8 then in a hard-fought battle skipped Martin Reid, Peter Brown and Graham Laidlaw to a 14-10 win over Paul Veitch.
And Gary Muir stole an early march on Hurry with a run of five singles a 2 and a 4 to skip Jim Nisbet, John Newall and Kyle Newall into a 12-3 lead but then had a sweat on the brow before edging a 13-12 win.
Holders Pilrig were disappointed at dropping points to relegation strugglers Dudley as their 7-2 home win meant they had lost ground on the leaders albeit they moved within 3½ points of Parkside, but retaining the title looks a lost cause.
There was consternation in the home camp as their normally reliable icon figure David Poole went 15-1 down and crashed to a 22-13 defeat from Ian Robertson Dougie Louden Colin Barr jun and Davy Dewar. The Pilrig fire, however, was stoked by Scott Rogers, who had been hard pressed to lead 13-9 but then added 1, 4, 5 and skipped Ryan Gow, George Tregoning and Gavin Smith to a 25-10 win over Graham Flight.
Chris Steven added win No.2 with some authority having led most of the way and answering pressure at 20-17 with a hat-trick of singles to skip Gavin Rogers, Mike Wilson and Euan Craig to a 24-17 win over Peter Miller. Darren McKenny completed the hat-trick having whipped up a storming finish of 2, 2, 3, 2 to skip Graham Gow, Alan Russell and Steven Stewart to a 19-10 win over Peter Whitton.
Tanfield, meanwhile, won't be adding to their record six title wins as their marginal 5-4 home win over Goldenacre leaves then in fourth place and some 16½ points off the pace.
Wardie is a club that has seemed shy of securing promotion from Division 2 in recent campaigns, however, there will be a steward's inquiry if they manage to blow it this year as last night's 7-2 away win at Dean was a great result that puts them top.
Mind you, they were helped by the shock 7-2 defeat of leaders Leith at Willowbrae – a result that allowed them to be leapfrogged by Wardie, albeit by a single point.
Wardie now have an 11½ point cushion over third-placed Niddrie, who lost ground with a 7-2 defeat at Maitland.
The relegation zone battle between London Road Foundry and Postal saw LRF score a 9-0 home win that now makes them joint bottom with their victims on the 30-point mark and still nine adrift of sixth-placed Maitland.
