Bainfield have earned a playoff crack at rescuing their indoor bowls premier league status with the bonus reward of two appropriate win results in the final fixtures of the A section pushing the Edinburgh Elite ahead of Coatbridge in the relegation zone.
The climax to the relegation battle in the highly competitive A section promised to be a thrilling affair with Bainfield anchored in the automatic drop position but not without hope of leapfrogging second from bottom Coatbridge.The escape hatch was only slightly ajar for Bainfield but they could go through it if winning at home to Abbeyview in conjunction with Coatbridge losing away to Midlothian.Midlothian played their part by duly delivering a formbook 37 shot win over Coatbridge and that was a lifeline that Bainfield grabbed with a 13 shot triumph (80-67) over their Fife visitors. Final Placings Bainfield 6 (-89), Coatbridge 6 (-187)Wins on the rinks skipped by Gavin Smith, James Hogg, and team captain Craig Paterson reflected a strong team performance and combined to cover the single figure defeat of Colin Hutchison.“We are not out of the woods yet” reflected Bainfield team manager Alan Brown “but we have avoided automatic relegation and now face a do or die battle against Division 1 North runners up Turriff”, he added.Bainfield’s task against Abbeyview was no easy one with the Fifers more than capable of winning away from home and the opening exchanges certainly put the wind up the Hutchison Crossway faithful with the visitors dominating the first 7-end phase, 30-18.“Our 12 shot deficit so early in the match was indeed a daunting one and would have been much worse but for the 10-2 damage limitation contribution from our rink skipped by James Hogg”, commented Brown later.It say’s much for the fighting spirit of the home team that their response to this intense pressure was to find an astonishing level of acceleration that powered them to a 35-11 revival on the second phase.“All four of our rinks had the measure of their respective oppositions on ends 8 to 14 but especially our talisman figure Gavin Smith who fired up our fight back with an inspirational 17-2 contribution”, said Brown.Bainfield entered the third and final phase defending a match lead of 12 shots and it wasn’t without its dangers before Craig Paterson shored up a slender 27-26 edge with a welcome 11-3 contribution.Smith emerged the game-changing hero figure for Bainfield as he wiped out a menacing 11-5 deficit after 10-ends to take the game by the scruff of the neck and skip Josh Spalding, Mark McIntosh, and John McDermott to a magic 27-17 win over Robert McFarlane.It all happened in the space of eight ends with Smith and Co shaping up as the potential villains of the piece at 10-2 down but carding a 3 at end nine then answering the loss of a single with spectacular run of 1, 5, 4, 4, (3), 5 to lead 24-14.Hogg gave Bainfield spirits an early lift by skipping Jamie Reid, Alan Brown, and Daniel Gormley into a 12-2 then 17-5 lead and stayed on strong enough to deliver a 20-11 win over Paul Brown.Paterson had much work to do at 9-0 down after just four ends and was still in trouble at 7-14 but whipped up a storming finish to skip Adam Brock, Danny McCourt, and Kevin Tennant to a valuable 19-17 win over Kenny Bald.Hutchison and his rink of Graeme McIntosh, Craig Aitken, and Brian Stoddart trailed 9-2 after six ends and were always against the collar in a 22-14 defeat from Jim McGuire.