Sweat on the brows and fingers bitten down to the knuckles but all ended well for the amazing gents of Balbardie who performed a great escape to secure their national league Division 1 status with a thrilling climax away victory over Cumbernauld.
That mighty haul to go 78-72 up left the now isolated John Ellis on the carpet with the comfort of defending the six shot match lead and he did so to great effect as he restricted Cumbernauld to a single. Ellis and Sandy McDougall skipped their respective winning performances while Shearer finished with a peel and Walter McDougall suffered a narrow defeat.
The completion of the 10 match programme saw the final picture in the league table of Division 1A read; Fraserburgh 16; Coatbridge 12; Cumbernauld 12; Balbardie 7 (-9); Dundee 7 (-25); Headwell 6 (-168).
Balbardie did need a helping hand to avoid the bottom two positions and it came in the shape of foot of the table Headwell dragging Dundee down with a superb away performance to score a shock 102-92 win over the home team.
Meanwhile the stars of the West Lothian IBC team made the long journey north to Elgin and produced an excellent performance that rewarded them with a commanding 94-57 victory and second place finish to Falkirk in Premier League A. The rink scores were; Calum Logan 27 M Thurston 7; James Speirs 32 M Junor 15; Neil Speirs 19 M Stepney 14; Craig Moss 16 G Donaldson 19.
The opening play in the Seniors Scottish Cup saw West Lothian put up a strong performance to score a surprise 8-2 win over Alloa at Stirling while Balbardie came out top in a 6-4 battle against Headwell at Abbeyview.
Yesterday’s first round play saw West Lothian playing Falkirk at Balbardie and Balbardie facing Midlothian at WLIBC.
This weekenda action in the Scottish Cup proper pitches West Lothian against Headwell at Stirling.