Bowls: Shock defeat ends Midlothian title hopes
The penultimate fixture in the ten-match programme saw the Dalkeith Stadium outfit suffer their first defeat on home carpet in Division A.
The pain of their shock 97-82 setback was magnified by news that joint leaders Blantyre had scored an away win over defending champions Paisley.
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Hide AdBlantyre entered their game with a massive shot-margin plus of 167 so the sequence of results mean that Midlothian can now do no better than finish second and will miss out on a place in the final.
Lanarkshire arrived at Dalkeith fighting to retain their Premier League status but things were looking good for Midlothian early on as a whirlwind start saw them lead 15-0.
But defeat for the rinks skipped by Sandy Knight, Colin Macfarlane and Billy Peacock came as a great disappointment with Commonweath Games hero David Peacock the only home skip to make a winning impression.
Midlothian peaked at 17 shots up (26-9) after four ends but the value of that exciting start had been greatly reduced to eight with a first phase seven-end score of 34-26.
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Hide AdThe Lanarkshire fightback continued with the visitors dictating the second-phase pace to win it 33-27 but leaving Midlothian still showing ahead by a short neck so it was a shock when the title contenders bombed 21-38 when the going became tough.
Billy Peacock saw his impressive eight-wins-in-a-row record ended by a 23-14 defeat from Robert Grant despite making a great start to lead 8-0 but suffering a collapse from 12-12.
Other scores: D Peacock 22, J Simpson 17; C Macfarlane 25, R Gordon 34; S Knight 21, S Hume 23.