Sandy hero of narrow victory
West Lothian lived dangerously before eventually winning 112-109 against top East Section opposition Edinburgh & Leith, despite only having two winning rinks out of six.
The major contributors to the final totals were the winning performances from the rinks skipped by Raymond Logan and Andrew Dunnett.
Yet the hero figure that tipped the scales in a nail-biting climax emerged in the shape of Sandy McDougall, whose rink played the final two ends in spotlight isolation and attracted rapturous applause when carding a magic count of four followed by the affordable loss of a single.
McDougall and his front three of John Black, Alec Allan and James Speirs made their colossal impact on the outcome of the match despite suffering a 22-17 defeat from Robert Marshall.
WL battled against the collar for all but one – the sixth - of the first 17 ends but never allowed their opponents to reach a comfort zone, although the visitors showed signs of a growing supremacy when sitting 59-45 in front after 10 ends.
End 15 across the six rinks will be hailed as the game-changing moment as West Lothian achieved a 10-0 clean sweep that reduced E&L’ s comfortable-looking 11- shot lead down to a single shot (77-76) advantage.
The phase scoring depicts a battle royal, with Edinburgh and Leith edging the first seven ends 35-34 then capturing the second 42-32.
However, West Lothian banked two vital win points with a storming 46-32 fightback on the third.
West Lothian’s chief architect of victory was Ray Logan, who lifted spirits with a run that powered him from 10-8 to 21-8 en route to skipping Steven Forrest, Connor McKendrick, and Gary Smith to a 23-13 win over Darren Hush.
Dunnett pushed on from 12-12 to skip Ewan Shearer, Jordan Pearce, and Walter McDougall to a 19-13 win over Mal Higgenbotham.
John Aitken skipped Andy Semple, Greg Baldry, and David Lamb to a 21-21 peel with Paul O’Donnell while Drew Paterson, David Rodgers, Calum Logan, and Grant Logan slipped to a narrow 19-16 defeat from James Hogg.
Steven Fleming and his rink of Scott Middlemiss, Blair Mackie, and Mark Allison steadied from 16-7 down in a 21-16 defeat from John McDermott.
Other results saw East Lothian seal a comfortable 140-113 victory over Midlothian, with Borders scored a 23-shot win over Fife (128-105).
In the other East Section fixture Stirling East defeated West Fife 129-108.
West Lothian feature in a top-of-the-bill match this Saturday and have home environment advantage at Kirkliston against impressive section leaders East Lothian.
The hosts will be hoping to cause a shock and inflict a first defeat of the season on their visitors.
East Lothian are hoping to have Commonwealth Games 2014 star Alex Marshall in their line-up as he is expected to fly home from Australia on Friday night.
Other fixtures are Edinburgh & Leith v Midlothian at Northern; Bo rd ersv West Fife at Jedburgh; Fife v Stirling East at Strathmiglo.