THE action in Division 1 of the Alpha Trophies Edinburgh Bowling League saw Hillside bounce back from their opening 9-0 defeat at Pilrig to score a home win over six-times champions Tanfield.
Hillside were poised to register a 7-2 points success but suffered a last-end setback on one of their rinks and had to settle for a 5½-3½ result instead. BJ Smith was involved in the late drama having led 13-10 playing the last where he held five s
hots before losing a three to peels after Tanfield third man Stuart Campbell had converted the head with a speculative strike.
"It was sore enough for us to lose one point to a peel but the team lost an additional half point as the match aggregate finished all square at 59-59," said Smith. "However, we felt last week's result was a great injustice in terms of how the team performed and I think this win shows we can make an impact on the league."
Gary Muir was the high flyer for the home side but he didn't really take off until the last three ends, skipping Keith Adamson David Foley and Brian Irving to a 3, 3, 2 finish for an 18-11 win over Graham McIntosh. Keith Gallagher doubled his score with a five at the 11th end to cross 10-9 then just did enough to beat Scott Wood 15-14, while Mal Higgenbotham kept Tanfield on the map with a 21-13 success over Kevin Moncur.
Queensberry caused a sensation at Craigentinny with the newly-promoted champions of Division 2 punching above their weight to inflict 7-2 damage on one of the leading contenders for the title.
Parkside scored a 7-2 home win over Dean having been 9-0 adrift at one stage but the rinks skipped by Bob Ramsay, Robert Donaldson and Alex Hurry turned things around in the later stages. Kevin McNab won for Dean.
Leith, the other promoted club, scored their first points of the campaign, although they lost 5-4 at home to Pilrig.
• DEFENDING champions Sighthill are bidding to complete a hat-trick of title wins in the Water of Leith First Sixteens League and last night's fourth series of fixtures saw them achieve their first 5-0 of the campaign at the expense of visiting Balerno. And Midlothian made an encouraging start to their Scottish Cities & Counties campaign with a 44-shot victory (146-102) over Fife County at Gorebridge, posting wins on five of their six rinks. The successful skips were Colin McFarlane (37-15), David Peacock (25-13), Billy Peacock (24-12), John Stevenson (29-21) and Jim Gibson (17-16) while Colin Walker lost 25-14.
The full article contains 463 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
