IT was thought to be a golden chance to reach the semi-final stage of the Scottish Counties Championship but Midlothian failed to rise to the occasion and made a disappointing exit to Buchan at neutral Duffus Park, Cupar.
In the end, the East section champions only lost by a frustrating four shots (112-108), but, in truth, they had always been in the slipstream of their rivals and as late as the 15th end trailed the North runners-up by 19.
East teams always start f
avourites against North challengers, however it was Buchan that showed they were up for the cause with a 40-34 edge on the first 7-end phase.
The middle phase action also saw Buchan in the ascendancy and a 41-32 domination increased their match lead to 15 and kept Midlothian surprisingly on the back foot. Midlothian were far from a spent force, however, and although the picture remained bleak at 11 shots down after 17 ends, they suddenly revitalised their challenge with end counts of 7-3 and 10-2 that gave them the match lead at 103-102.
Unfortunately for team manager Alec McIntosh and the Midlothian camp, however, it was Buchan that had the final say as counts of 5-3 and 5-2 gave them a famous victory. The Midlothian line-up had indoor cap Steven Currie back in favour and former E&L star Ian Brown at skip, but the absence of gold medallist David Peacock, due to holidays, proved to be a big blow.
While Buchan's win will go down as a surprise, the fact that they defeated Midlothian on four of the six rinks and only lost one of the others by a single shot suggests they were worthy winners.
Colin McFarlane kept Midlothian in touch, skipping Ronnie Duncan, Steven Currie and Henry Aitchison into a 15-5 lead after 11 ends, then from 19-8 adding 1, 1, 1, 4, 3 to score a 29-10 victory over Craig Dinnes.
Midlothian's only other success came from Colin Walker who trailed 15-7 after 13 ends but carded a super six at the 16th, then finished with four singles to skip Eddie Adams, Lindsay Plenderleith and George Yuill to a battling 19-18 win over Ian Milne.
The downside for Midlothian saw Scott Briggs lose 23-13 to David Alexander, Ian Brown give 21-14 best to Davy Anderson, and Craig Hodge slip from 19-13 up to a 21-19 defeat from Derek Murray. Billy Peacock lost 19-14 to David Hay having fought back from 18-1 down after a poor 12 ends.
The full article contains 446 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
