A Midlothian team without top stars Ronnie Duncan, Colin Walker, and Graham Archer in the line up faced a tough task against a settled West Lothian opposition in their Hamilton Trophy clash at Loanhead MW; but the home side emerged with their undefeated record intact. (Four out of Four).
Read MoreThe match was fought on a knife-edge for most of the 21-end confrontation with the outcome going right down to wire and it was last end heroics from former world star David Peacock that clinched a thrilling two shot victory (117-115) for the table-toppers of the East section.
Wins on the rinks skipped by Danny McDougall, Ramsay Blair, Scott Briggs, and Peacock gave Midlothian the winning edge but only by the skin of their teeth as the home team coped tenaciously with the combined setbacks suffered by Colin Bonner, and Colin McFarlane. Whilst the opening exchanges were tight as reflected by a 38-34 first phase show in favour of Midlothian on the master scoreboard it masked an 11-3 contribution by Briggs against Ray Logan that was almost balanced by Macfarlane trailing 10-3 to Sandy McDougall. Midlothian tails were raised higher with their 42-31 capture of the second phase having edged the outcome on five rinks and gaining a share on the other, leading to a match lead of 15 (80-65) that put West Lothian on the back foot and under pressure.
West Lothian were fighting for their lives to avoid a second match defeat in four and staged a bold third phase counter-attack that came oh so close to snatching victory on the line; but forced to accept that their 50-37 dominance just fell short. Midlothian having been rocked back onto their heels by two sizeable punishments; dished out to Bonner by Steven Fleming (3-12) and to Macfarlane by Sandy McDougall (12-5). However there was a silver lining for Midlothian in that gathering dark cloud and it came in the shape of Danny McDougall outgunning Thomas Mann, 12-3; but that still left the home team needing a nerves of steel match winner from Peacock.
Peacock, playing against Grant Logan, faced a head of 4 shots against him when he took to the mat, a match losing situation for the home county; but the iconic Midlothian figure enhanced his legend status by cutting his losses down to a single with a well judged killer bowl into the WL cluster. Peacock had skipped his rink to a hard fought 19-16 win and that was supported by Scott Briggs beating Raymond Logan, 21-11; and Ramsay Blair finishing 5, 2, 1 to beat Andy Dunnett, 23-20. But the major shot margin contributor was Danny McDougall skipping Paul Innes, Arron Clinkscales, and Kevin McDougall to a 27-14 win over Mann. Other scores were, C Macfarlane 16 Sandy McDougall 28; C Bonner 11 Steven Fleming 26.