Midlothian had their realistic dreams of making it to the playoff final of the indoor bowls premier league absolutely crushed by a cruel 53 shot away defeat from Blantyre as the A section nears its completion.
Read moreBlantyre – who have lost only one home game in the last five seasons – led from start to finish and won convincingly on all four rinks to celebrate a spectacular 109-56 victory that makes them the new favourites to finish top of the section.With just two games to play it still does look a close call with West Lothian, Blantyre, and Midlothian all sharing top place with 10 points each from eight matches played but the respective shot margin banks are + 135, +110, and –6.Blantyre still have West Lothian to entertain at home and with their invincible aura to drive them on and an exceptionally strong team to boot it certainly gives them a favourites chance to come out on top.Midlothian arrived at Blantyre holding a two point lead at the top of the table and knowing a win would make them solid favourites to go on and qualify but that extremely difficult task was made almost impossible with the absence of three star players.Ace skips Colin Walker and Ronnie Duncan – both experienced internationalists – were down South competing in the World Championships while stalwart third player Craig Hodge was unavailable.Then further pre-match drama saw team manager Frank Gray lose the services of another major talent in the shape of Kevin McDougall suggesting that team morale would be at an all time low.
“Our team talk focused on how high the stakes were for us and how necessary it was for us to dig in deep with the second priority to a win being keeping the extent of a defeat down to low numbers”, reflected Gray.“I am sorry to say that our heads went down very quickly leading to a dismal performance and lack of enthusiasm that saw us demolished by an apposition that played much better and shouted louder”, added the devastated team manager.“There weren’t any good spells for us in the entire game and one particularly bad one saw us concede 10-0 on end 14 to go 39 shots down” described Gray.Sandy (AJ) Knight and Davy Munro were the replacement skips for Walker and Duncan and both suffered heavy double-figure defeats while the Peacock brothers David and Billy were also punished by a Blantyre team with the bit between their teeth.The writing came on the wall early for Midlothian with Blantyre racing into a 17 shot lead after five ends and the completion of the first seven-end phase saw the major scoreboard reading 36-14 in favour of the home side.Blantyre went on to dominate the second phase, 38-21 and the third, 35-21.Peacock (Billy) shaped up well to slip Jamie Aitken, Ian Fleming, and Colin MacFarlane into a 10-5 lead after eight ends but four blanks on the trot brought them under pressure and they slipped to a 25-18 defeat from Jim McCann.Peacock (David) rallied Jamie Macnab, Lindsay Plenderleith, and Andy Caldwell from 2-10 to 13-14 but then fell away to suffer a 26-15 defeat from Brian Irvine.Knight and his rink of Neil Watson, Andy Kelly, and Ian Forbes won the last four ends 7-3 but what had gone before cost them a heavy 27-13 defeat from Iain McLean.Munro and his front-three of Colin Cook, Ryan Yuill, and Colin Bonner trailed 9-0 after five ends were never at the races and crashed to a 31-10 defeat from Scott Bishop.