Bainfield have secured their status as an indoor bowls premier league club for the 2015/16 season having grabbed the opportunity to escape from the last chance saloon by scoring a massive 42 shot victory (98-56) over Turriff at Cumbernauld.
The do or die head to head at a neutral venue was a playoff between the runners up in Division 1North (Turriff) and the second from bottom club in Section A of the Premier League (Bainfield). Turriff -–as a team on the up -–were expected to be a tough proposition for a Bainfield team that had blown hot and cold in their league campaign however on this occasion the Edinburgh Elite chose to turn on the power and style. The Bainfield game plan was to make an early impact against their much further travelled opponents so it was a dream situation for team manager Alan Brown when the rink skipped by Scotland cap Colin Hutchison zipped into a 16-0 lead after six ends. “It was exactly the blitz kind of start that we dreamed off pre-match as it rocked Turriff back onto their heels and gave an early dent to their confidence while it was a great inspiration to all four Bainfield rinks”, said Brown later. However it is due credit to the spirit of Turriff that whilst their half-game deficit of 18 shots (48-30) was a daunting one if the, by then, 19-4 contribution from Hutchison is excluded the difference between the other three rinks was only 3. Superior class on the day though did tell eventually with double figure wins for the rinks skipped by Hutchison (23) and James Hogg (14) supported by a seven shot success for Gavin Smith thereby dwarfing the two shot defeat of team captain Craig Paterson.
Bainfield won all three phases of the 21-end game, capturing the first 30-25, although it was the 16-1 dominance of Hutchison that countered the fact that the Edinburgh side were slightly adrift by a combined ten shots on the other three rinks Strong inputs from Hogg (12-2), and Smith (10-2) on the second phase were supported by Paterson (9-3), and Hutchison (8-7) to earn Bainfield a game-changing 39-14 surpemacy. Bainfield stayed well focused on the third phase to win it 29-17 with an 8-1 and 11-4 contribution from Hogg and Hutchison respectively serving the team well. Hutchison opening run of 2, 5, 4, 1, 3, 1 was powerful stuff and he went on to skip Chris Downie, Brian Stoddart, and Barry Hill to a spectacular 35-12 win over Mark Thurston having finished in a 4, 3, 2, 1 blaze of glory. Hogg ralled from 7-4 down to skip Jamie Reid, Alan Brown, and Daniel Gormley into a 16-7 lead after 12-ends then later carded a mighty 5 at end 16 en route to a commanding 24-10 win over Connor Milne. Smith carded 3, 3 to skip Josh Spalding, Mark McIntosh, and John McDermott into a 9-8 lead after eight ends then under pressure at 17-15 produced a 1, 1, 3 finish to clinch a hard earned 22-15 win over Dave Anderson. Paterson and his rink of Adam Brock, Danny McCourt, and Kevin Tennant were under early pressure at 10-5 down after nine ends but fought back boldly to lead 17-14 before losing 19-14 to a 3, 2 finish from G Barclay. The other playoff action saw Lanarkshire preserve their premier league status with a 95-62 win over Division 1 South runners up, Inverclyde.