It was a case of so near and yet so far for Midlothian as they ended their A section campaign of the indoor bowls premier league with a commanding 37 shot victory (105-68) over Coatbridge at Dalkeith.
It was the home sides seventh win in 10 games and good enough for them to finish joint top of their section but they were denied a place in the playoff final by the sizeable 88 shot margin enjoyed by Blantyre.“It was a wild dream of ours that Blantyre would drop a point at home to defending champions West Lothian but the realistic view was that it wouldn’t happen so I am delighted that the boys did their bit by staying focused on delivering a win in these circumstances”, reflected team manager Frank Gray.“We can’t dwell too long on looking back as our morale has to be kept up ahead of our pending Scottish Cup campaign but for a moment it haunts us that we blew a good lead to end up losing our home match against Abbeyview and that has cost us dear”, he added.Midlothian’s final fling in the A section wasn’t perfection with the rink skipped by Billy Peacock losing but it was a narrow defeat well covered by wins registered by Colin Walker, Ronnie Duncan, and team captain David Peacock.A home win was predicted by the formbook with Coatbridge anchored in the relegation zone – although fighting for their lives to avoid the automatic drop – and the phase analysis suggests that Midlothian made a strong start.However their 35-22 advantage over the first seven-ends is skewed by David Peacock registering the spectacular full house count of 8 shots that supported fine 11-3 and 9-2 contributions from Ronnie Duncan and Colin Walker.Coatbridge did show good signs of life with a 30-27 revival on the second phase however Midlothian produced an explosive third phase performance to blitz the visitors, 43-16.Walker built on his 9-2 lead by answering the loss of a single with a run of 5, 2, 1 to skip Ian Forbes, Colin Bonner, and Sandy (AJ) Knight to 17-3 and the rink remained dominant to score a 30-9 win over George McKenzie.Duncan added 1, 3, 4 to skip Colin cook, David Munro, and Kevin McDougall into an 11-3 lead after seven ends the a later purple patch spell of 3, 5, 3 accelerated their score to 23-10 and onwards to a 33-12 win over Robert Murphy.Peacock (David) and his rink of Jamie Macnab, Lindsey Plenderleith, and Andy Caldwell did struggle against the collar with deficits of 8-0, 18-9, 24-15, and 25-18 but stormed to a 26-25 victory with a run of 1, 3, 4 against G Smith.Peacock (Billy) and his front-three of Jamie Aitken, Ian Fleming, and Colin MacFarlane looked to have found their true form with a second half run of 1, 1, 4, 2 that transformed a 14-8 deficit into a 16-14 advantage.But a dismal five-end collapse on the run in saw them concede 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, and pay the price with a 22-16 defeat from Gary Prunty.