Stewart Meikle’s Round-Up

Oct 21 2010 by Mairon Laird, West Lothian Courier

BALBARDIE have revived pre-season notions of achieving promotion to premier league status by bouncing back from two disappointing defeats to score a surprise away win over previously undefeated Division 1 B leaders Abbeyview.

Abbeyview’s away win over fancied title challengers Portobello the weekend before was top-form stuff and suggested that the Dunfermline club would be difficult to beat so they represented Balbardie’s most difficult task to date.

But a coupon-busting result saw Balbardie driven on by rink winning contributions from skips Walter McDougall and Graeme Byrne to score a nailbiting 4 shot victory (78-74) in a rollercoaster confrontation.

Andy Forrest and Ewan Shearer were the two losing skips but both rinks kept in touch with the opposition until slipping in the late stages of the match.

It is greatly to the credit of Balbardie that they displayed skills and mental toughness in abundance to recover from the 28-17 loss of the first 7-ends, to dominate the second phase, 37-23 then edge the third, 24-23.

McDougall made a good start to lead 7-2 after eight ends then boosted by a super count of 6 at the next went on to skip Lawson Trotter, Mark Bonar and Jim Speirs to a 23-14 win over Rab McFarlane.

Byrne won 11 of the first 16 ends to lead 18-7 then came under late pressure but traded well enough on his cushion to skip John Gillogley David Ross and Diz Drysdale to a 20-13 win over Paul Brown.

Forrest and his rink of Ian Drysdale, David Lawrie and Gary Orr were subjected to strong early pressure to trail 13-3 after 10-ends but battled back boldly to 15-15 before losing 20-17 to Stuart Pagan.

Shearer added 3, 3 to have Alistair Wilson, Davy Coats and Kenny Martin in touch at 18-20 after 18-ends but Kenny Bald finished 3, 1 3, to beat them 27-18.

News of Balbardie’s shock win was well received at Portobello as it brought the Edinburgh club back into the promotion picture following their 85-68 home win over Stirling.

West Lothian’s hopes of building up a head of steam after getting off the mark against Bainfield came to an unusual halt as they forfeited the points after failing to reach Aberdeen due to road closure after a serious accident.

The team bus travelling north left in plenty time but got no further than Perth, however representation has been made to the appropriate authority within the SIBA to have the fixture re-arranged. A decision is pending.

The ladies of West Lothian failed to make home carpet advantage count in a disappointing 96-71 defeat from Portobello in Division 1C of the Inter Club League Cup.

Ann Clark included a 6 at the ninth end as she skipped Irene Taylor Isabel Lindsay and Lisa Barrett into a 21-9 lead before a leaner spell saw them restricted to a 25-23 win over Marianne McGarrity.

Wendy Purdie came good with a run of 1, 1, 4, 3 to cross 14-8 then she skipped Creena Docherty, Jean McPherson and Jenifer Richardson to a 21-14 win over Barbara Kay.

Lily Sword and her rink of Lucy Noon, Sandra Purdie and Jean Brown recovered from the loss of a 5 to later stand peels at 16-16, however they slipped to a 22-18 defeat from Rita Reid.

It was a bad day at the office for the rink of Betty Tate, Irene Fergus, Evelyn Barclay and Helen Tully who could only register at 5 of the 21 ends in a 37-7 defeat from Isabel Anderson.

Elsewhere, East Lothian made it three wins out of three at the 105-55 expense of Teviotdale while Bainfield beat Tweedbank, 98-54.

Balbardie ladies scored an 89-73 away win over Allander in the D section where other results saw Coatbridge beat Cumbernauld 114-53, and Fintry scored an 89-70 away win over Stirling.

The national league system for the gents gives way to the playdown action of the Scottish Singles at Auchinleck this weekend with Ewan Shearer and Richard Mark carrying the banner for Balbardie and West Lothian respectively.

West Lothian ladies entertain Tweedbank in the Inter Club League on Saturday while Balbardie travel to Fintry.

Wendy Purdie carries the West Lothian banner into the high prestige Champion of Champions playdown action at Auchinleck on Sunday.