Seniors lose heavily as men crash out of contention
THE seniors had a home match against West Lothian last Wednesday, with neither team having any chance of progressing in the league at this late stage of the season.
Tweedbank seniors got off to a fine start and after completion of five ends they led by 24-18 – and only one home rink was behind. However, at 10 ends, everything had changed, with West Lothian not only pulling back the deficit, but also building up an 11-shot advantage. Three of the four Tweedbank rinks were now in arrears.
The second half belonged to the visitors, who had stretched the lead to 29 after 15 ends.
In the end no home rink had achieved a win and next week they have another difficult match away to Balbardie.
Skips and scores: Peter McGauchrane 10, G. Marshall 20; Rob Fulton 13, J. Davidson 17; David Weir 13, J. Craig 18; Jim Redpath 9, R. Martin 23. Result: 45-78.
The men travelled to Abbeyview on Saturday, knowing that only a win would keep their hopes of winning the league alive. It was, however, the same for their opponents, so a close encounter was expected.
During the early part of the match Tweedbank did manage to gain some advantage, but the small lead was soon eradicated and for much of the time there was little to choose between the two teams.
It appeared that the Borderers had taken the initiative at the right time when, with the available ends fast running out, they pulled ahead, but were unable to consolidate their position.
With just a few ends left to play Tweedbank had a three-shot lead – however, one rink then lost a count of three, so the scores were level. It was unfortunate that the same rink believed they still had two ends left to play, but a fault in the scoreboard had not registered two ends played.
With two rinks on their last end, it was a close contest with some excellent bowls played by both sides.
Abbeyview gained the necessary shots to leave Tweedbank needing three on the last end for a draw, but knowing that only four with a win would be enough.
After killing the end, visitor Ross Nichol played an excellent bowl to give them the chance of the four shots, but his opponent immediately countered, leaving a difficult position which yielded just one shot for Tweedbank and Abbeyview won the match by 82-80.
Tweedbank fought hard throughout and the close match was made possible by Billy Nisbet, Gary Thorburn, Derick Pearce and Robert Crawford who all played well to gain a well-earned victory.
The Borderers have now slipped to third place and, with one match left, cannot take the title.
This will be decided with the last match between Abbeyview and Portobello next month.
At club level ,response to the proposed triples league has so far disappointing and members interested in entering a team should now add their names to the list on the noticeboard as soon as possible.
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Weather for Galashiels
Friday 24 May 2013
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