Edinburgh & Leiths prospects of finishing in the top two of their Hamilton Trophy qualifying section received a damaging setback with their 14 shot defeat (117-103) by East Lothian at ELCO albeit they retain a fighting chance with two games to play.
Read MoreE&L entertain a struggling Borders team at Craigentinny today 4 points adrift of table topping West Lothian while their fellow rivals Stirling County East and East Lothian- also on the 6 point mark do battle at Stenhousemuir. The E&L selectors promote Liam McKay to skip in place of Richard Tough and give him Darren Hush as his third in front of Lewis Betts and Andy McNab.
Stephen Pringle steps into the shoes of Hush at third to Stuart Isbister, Euan Craig, and James Hogg while Gavin Ramsay replaces Ross Noble at second to Graeme Eddington, John Kidd, and Paul O’Donnell. Steven Pilley comes in for Ross Thomson at lead to Robert Donaldson, Neil Watson, and Paul Veitch. The other two rinks are; Craig Mackintosh, Gordon Ramsay, John McDermott, and Robert Marshall (skip); David Fisher, Ali McKenna, John Ramsay, and Danny Gormley (skip).
East Lothians third win on the trot has opened up the chance of finishing in second place and especially so if they can maintain their winning momentum away to fellow contenders Stirling C East however the homes teams win over Midlothian reads like good form.
West Lothian continue to fly high and the defending champions are undefeated having survived a tough challenge to score 27 shot away win (132-105) against Midlothian at Loanhead MW. Gary Smith is an enforced absentee against Fife County at Markinch today and his high profile Linlithgow clubmate Ewan Shearer returns as a straight replacement at third to Thomas Mann. Also, Jimmy Speirs comes in as the replacement for Darren Pearce at lead to Barry Sword, Mark Allison, and Raymond Logan.
Midlothian have under- performed this campaign with just two wins out of five and now seek redemption at home to West Fife at Polton. Graeme Archer plays third to Danny McDougall while the other five skips are; Scott Brriggs, David Peacock, Colin Macfarlane, Colin Walker and Colin Bonner.
The District Finals of Bowls Midlothian are down for decision at Dalkeith BC tomorrow (Sun) and the line up reads; Singles: Grant King (Deantown) v David Peacock (Danderhall); J/Singles: Paul Innes (Polton) v Jack Macnab (Polton); Pairs: Derek Ritchie and Danny McDougall (Buccleuch) v Dougie Russell and Colin Bonner (Polton); Triples: Shottsown MVW v Wallyford MW; Fours: Polton v Bonnyrigg).
In one of the best semi finals and final ever the Midlothian champions Buccleuch put up a tremendous bid to capture the Countrywide Wills and Trusts Inter County Top Ten title in last weekends Final Days play at Eddlewood, Hamilton with their defeat in the final to The Rock of Dumbartonshire going right down to the last bowl.
Semi finals wins for star of the show Danny McDougall in the Singles 21-16 over Linlithgows Gary Smith and the rink of Derek Ritchie, Jason Urquhart Andrew Kelly and Scott Ritchie 13-9 over Steven Fleming (skip) earned them a 4-4 ahare of the points and a shot aggregate of 60-53.
The loss of a 5 at the second last end saw The Triple of Lee Fraser, Stuart and Scott Runciman piped in a 14-13 thriller by Gary Orr (skip) while the Pair of Alan Kelly and Mark Thorburn lost a single at the last to also be piped 14-13 by Andy Dunnett (skip).
McDougall was again outstanding in the final but faced another man on top of his form and from 16-12 up lost a great battle to the line, 21-17 at the hands of Kenny Paton.
The rink did find the going very tough in a 22-10 defeat however a 20-9 win for the Triple kept the pot boiling then major drama saw Mark Thorburn draw 4 shots under amazing pressure to skip the Pairs to an unlikely 16-14 win.
That tied the match at 4-4 and 63-63 with the Fours on their last end and a situation of whoever scored was winning the title it was The Rock.
Adverse weather disrupted the Alpha Trophies Edinburgh League programme this week but one of the games that survived saw Maitland upset the apple cart with a great 5-4 away win over defending Division 1 champions Craigentinny.