MIDLOTHIAN were left frustrated following their narrow three-shot defeat away to Blantyre in the A Section of the indoor bowls Premier League.
Blantyre, always tough opposition on their home carpet, ran out 71-68 winners although the visitors did win the end count 41-39 but they couldn't capitalise on it.
The major source of Midlothian's problems lay in the massive under-performance by t
he David Peacock rink in what is a totally abnormal situation for the Dalkeith star.
Peacock's heavy 16-shot defeat was on top of the lesser eight and single-shot setbacks for fellow skips Colin Walker and Billy Peacock leaving Willie Rankin too much to do, although a valiant effort saw him almost save the day with a massive 22-shot triumph.
Midlothian's best effort came on the final phase where they stormed back from earlier 27-21 and 34-16 reversals to put a better complexion on their performance with an exciting 31-10 fight-back.
It was Midlothian's second defeat in three games and two points from six isn't an encouraging start to their campaign.
David Peacock and his rink of Steven Currie, Scott Matthews and AJ Knight were 11-0 down after three ends and stood at 26-1 down after 11 as home skip Alex Kelly piled on the pressure.
Their situation remained bleak at 27-3 down, however, a late rally of 1, 1, 3, 1, 3, reduced the damage to a 28-12 defeat.
Rankin, meanwhile, raced into an 11-0 lead over internationalist Ian McLean then, from 16-6, added 2, 3, 1, 5, 1 to skip Martin Wyllie, David Munro and Ian Brown to a 28-6 win.
Billy Peacock and his front three of Ronnie Duncan, David Salkeld and Drew Pearson lost 14-13 to Billy Irvine while Colin Walker with Robert Campbell, Ian Forbes and Lindsay Plenderleith trailed Jim McCann 21-9 after 17 ends but lost 23-15 after a late rally.
The full article contains 339 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
