Carrick Knowe have joined Craigentinny in the final of the Edinburgh Top Ten Championship having been taken right down to the wire before clinching an exciting 5-3 victory over Summerside in their semi final played at Goldenacre.
Read MoreWins in the Fours and Pairs laid the foundations of match victory for Carrick Knowe; but the hot favourites also needed a share of the points in the Triples to see off the battling challenge of a Summerside team that had scored a surprise win in the Singles. All four disciplines were being closely contested approaching their respective finishing lines and had Summerside managed to snatch a win in the Triples then a 4-4 share of the points would have taken the semi final into the tie-break territory of shot aggregate then Singles result.
Summerside drew first blood with their spearhead figure Peter Miller firing up the challenge of the underdogs by delivering a 21-19 win in 22 ends over Paul O’Donnell in the Singles. Miller, a former Tait Trophy Champion, versus O’Donnell, a former City of Edinburgh Open Champion, provided a great attraction to the spectators and both players paraded their skills in a fashion that led to an epic encounter. Miller was first to raise the temperature of the match with counts of 2, 3 that pushed him into an 11-6 lead, and he continued to keep the current Edinburgh & Leith team captain against the collar at, 13-8, then answered menace at 14-12 with a magic, three to 17. Sight of the winning line coming into sharp focus is a significant moment for the mentality challenge of both players in singles play and in this instance it acted as a spur to O’Donnell who cheered up his support with a 1, 4 fight back that levelled the score. Miller broke his opponents momentum with a timely single to 18; but O’Donnell resumed with successive singles to cross 19-18 then with the melting pot sizzling it was Miller that emerged the victor by virtue of a 1, 2 finish to 21.
The Fours was the next discipline to finish and provided more drama as it developed from a 10-11 cliff-hanger, in the slight favour of Summerside rink Mark Fyfe, Tam Abercrombie, Gavin Rogers, and John Wilson, after 12 of the 17 ends played. Darren Hush was at the helm for Carrick Knowe and he proceeded to silence the opposition camp by skipping Stephen Pringle, Johnny Priestley, and John Ramsay to a run of 1, 3, 2 that set up a 16-12 victory. Match score now 2-2.
The next discipline to finish was the Pairs and the outcome tipped the match scales in favour of Carrick Knowe with Colin Mitchell, a legend five times Tait Trophy champion, skipping Kevin Tennant to a 20-17 win over Norrie Chalmers and Kerr McKail. The Carrick Knowe partnership had pulled out all the stops to lead 17-9 after 13-ends then answered growing danger at 17-13 with a space making three to 20.
The match result looked to be well sewn up in favour of Carrick Knowe with their Triple of John Mitchell Jnr, Graham Pringle, and James Hogg holding a comfortable 14-8 lead over Alfie King, Paul Jeromson, and Jim Currie. But there was consternation in both camps when Currie and Co carded a mighty five to 13 on their penultimate end then in a nail-biting climax just failed to snatch a victory that could have put the cat amongst the pigeons – finishing instead peels at 14-14. Balerno is the host club for the Carrick Knowe v Craigentinny final on Saturday 27th August.