Midlothian Ladies flying high at the top of East Premier Division

A timely run of 1, 5, 1, 1, 3 from Annie Rutherford’s Midlothian rink entering the third and final phase of the match kept the home team in check.

Rutherford’s purple patch spell was supported by a 1, 3, 3, 3 acceleration by the Shona Johnstone-skipped rink while Sandra McLeish added to the game-changing period with a run of 2, 1, 2, 1.

Midlothian had been finding it difficult to establish a supremacy over the stubborn home side with the master scoreboard showing 50-49 in favour of the visitors after 13 ends. However, by the close of end 18, the aggregate was 76-58 and a margin of 18. McLeish emerged the high flyer for Midlothian with the 36-times capped star in sparkling form to skip Sandra Muir, Pat Liddle and Grace McGregor into an 18-4 lead then on to a 28-12 win over Louise Tran. Johnstone held on from 18-9 to beat Val McGregor 19-16 while Rutherford included an early count of seven in her battling 25-22 win over Sheena Johnston. Stacey McDougall was always against the collar in a 19-14 defeat from Ann Bernard.