Shockwaves have engulfed the Inveralmond Stadium in Livingston with the West Lothian IBC gent’s team making a complete hash of their last match penalty kick opportunity to clinch a place in the Playoff Final of the Premier League.
Read MoreThe star-studded table topping team looked nailed on to defeat relegation doomed Paisley but their collapse to a colossal 44 shot defeat (99-55) allowed reigning national champions East Lothian to pip them at the post. WL travelled to Paisley in pole position with a lead of 2 points and 30 shots over East Lothian in the B section having done what was viewed to be the hard work by scoring a great 18 shot win (85-67) at home to their chief rivals the previous weekend.
“ We absolutely thought it was all over bar the shouting and that our goose was well and truly cooked” said EL captain Dougie Berwick afterwards “ however I said to the lads that we should get our heads back up and play to the final whistle”
The EL response was a tribute to their attitude and mental toughness in the shape of powering to a commanding 33 shot win (93-63) at home to Elgin that enabled them to come up on the rails and snatch the Section honours with a plus of 47 shots over West Lothian. The tale of woe for WL at Paisley was a total eclipse by an opposition that was only winning for a second time in their 10 match programme yet dropping down to Division 1 clutching the scalp of the pre-match section leaders. The stakes were sky high for WL yet they failed to strike a blow with the rinks skipped by Calum Logan and Mark Allison thumped by 18 and 16 shots respectively while icon figure Neil Speirs lost by 6 and Craig Moss by 4. The final scores being; C Taggart 30 C Logan 12; G Sloan 29 M Allison 13; M McLees 22 N Speirs 16; D Moffat 18 C Moss 14.
However in a contrast of fortunes there is a ‘great news’ story from the Gents of Balbardie who conjured up a magical escape to survival in Division 1 South by finishing their 10 match schedule with a magnificent hat trick of wins. Seemingly doomed to relegation by the dark cloud of seven straight defeats the glimmer of a silver lining emerged with a 72-59 win at home to Ayr followed by an inspirational 92-74 win away to East Kilbride Escape from the bottom two relegation spots still looked to be a forlorn hope but Balbardie did their bit by delivering a crucial third win in a row (91-75) at home to fellow strugglers Inverclyde. That result lifted Balabrdie out of the automatic relegation place, on shot margin, but there was more magic in the air as escape from the Playoff relegation spot was gifted to them by the narrow 84 –78 defeat of Ayr by their East Kilbride visitors. The final foot of the table placing reading; Balbardie 6 Points (-94); Inverclyde 6 Points (-97); Ayr 6 Points (-2016). Well Done Balbardie.