Midlothian recovered miraculously well from a severe early fright to launch their indoor bowls Premier League campaign with an encouraging 27 shot victory (105-78) over newly promoted Cumbernauld at The Dalkeith Stadium.
Read MoreCumbernauld arrived from the lower structures of the league system as an unknown quantity but made an immediate impression by storming into an astonishing 25-4 lead after three ends having made whirlwind starts on three rinks across the carpet with scores of 9-0, 9-1, and 6-0, negated only by a 3-1 loss on the fourth.
To say I was mortified at that stage is an understatement, said team manager Frank Gray later however the team showed tremendous character and composure to answer that wake up call with a tremendous fight back.
The Peacock brothers Billy and David plus rising starlet Jack Macnab were notable absentees while a late call off from Scott Briggs led to a debut for recent Edinburgh & Leith Tait Trophy champion Liam McKay. Double figure wins on the rinks skipped Danny McDougall and Colin Walker were inspirational to team morale and supported by a peel for Graeme Archer handsomely covered the narrow setback suffered by team captain Ronnie Duncan. The home teams response to a shock 21 shot deficit after that stunning opening onslaught from the visitors was immediate and thunderous in the shape of a 32-3 blitz over ends 4, 5, 6, and 7.
Midlothians fairy tale 36-28 capture of that first seven-end phase set them up for a match supremacy of 30-20 on the second phase and 39-30 on the third. McDougall set the mood of the home support alight with a fiery response of 4, 2, 2, 4 (1), 4. 1 to skip Neil Linton, Liam McKay, and Jimmy Cullen from 0-9 to 17-10 then remained on fire with a super count of 6 and a sizzling run of 5, 2, 4 to win 36-20. Walker was always a dominant figure as the high profile Scotland cap skipped Ian Forbes, Paul Innes, and Dougie Russell to a 24-11 victory having emerged with the upper hand on 14 of the 21 ends.
Archer and his front three of Scott Runciman, Craig Hodge, and Andrew Caldwell won their end count 12/9 but had to settle for a 22-22 peel having suffered heavy losses of a 6 and a 5. Duncan managed to skip Jamie Macnab, Ian Fleming, and AJ Knight back into a winning position at 13-12 from 0-6 but collapsed to 22-13 down before a late rally reduced the extent of their defeat to 2 shots (23-25).