Midlothian fail in bid for ninth Inter Club title
The Ayrshire team won on all four rinks to post an 89-66 victory.
Midlothian arrived in the final with the awesome record of nine wins out of nine and their confidence inspired a buoyant start on three of their rinks. Team captain Shona Johnstone made a storming start of 1, 2, 1, 5, 1, 1 to sail into an 11-0 lead after six ends and there was positive support from May Brownlee (7-5), plus a holding effort of 4-4 from Sandra McLeish.
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Hide AdBut the slow start on the rink skipped by Stacey McDougall to trail 7-2 turned out to be an early signal that Auchinleck were intent on making a staunch defence of the title as they eyed the national crown for what would be a seventh time.
The phase scoring reflects the early dominance of Midlothian with a 26-18 capture of the first seven ends but the middle-match exchanges proved to be a game changer with Auchinleck’s 31-19 fightback tipping the scales slightly (49-45) in their favour.
It was still all to play for entering the final phase but the momentum remained with Auchinleck and Midlothian were swamped 40-21 with the rink skipped by McDougall the only one to turn the tables (8-7) on the fired-up opposition.
A three-end spell rocked Midlothian back on their heels with the master scoreboard moving from 48-55 after 15 ends to 55-76 after 18, having been outgunned 21-7 with losses of 6-1, 7-2 and 8-4.
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Hide AdJohnstone skipped Ellie Borthwick, Janette McVicar and Margaret Porter into a substantial 15-4 lead after 12 ends but came under late pressure from a strong opposition skipped by Claire Johnston and collapsed to a 20-18 defeat.
Brownlee and her rink of Dorothy Millar, Alison Plenderleith and Annette Wilson, led 9-6 after nine but were crossed 10-9 at the next and slipped to 21-11 down before losing 23-14 to Jos Williamson.
McLeish and her front three of Sandra Muir, Pat Liddle and Grace McGregor were crossed 12-8 by the loss of a 5 on end 11 but were still battling well at 18-18 before the loss of a 3 cost them a 21-18 defeat from Maureen Shimmons.
McDougall and her rink of Lorna Goldsmith, Gill Wilson and Susan Liddle were being put through the mill at 15-2 down after 10 and 25-10 after 18 before a late 1, 1, 4 fightback saw them settle for a 25-16 defeat from Heather Kay.