Scotland heaved an immense sigh of relief as they won their Test Series against England at Stanley in County Durham yesterday, with the result of the overall Series going right to the very last bowl for the Scots to edge a 6-5 cliffhanger.
The previous day, the Scots had been in blistering form taking an overnight 4-1 lead from their triples and pairs matches before heading into yesterday's six singles matches.
They won both triples exchanges with Iain McLean, Colin Walker and Alex Marshall posting a straight sets 5-4, 8-4 win over Nicky Brett's team of Mervyn King and Rob Paxton while Paul Foster skipped Mike Stepney and Derek Oliver to an 8-3, 3-6, 2-1 win ahead of Jamie Walker, Mark Dawes and Greg Harlow.
Following on, they won the opening two pairs matches thanks to McLean and Stepney winning 2-0 on a tie breaking against King and Brett while world and Commonwealth champions Foster and Marshall impressed with a 6-5, 10-3 win ahead of Jamie Walker and Rob Paxton.
They did however slip up in their last match of the day with Oliver and Walker going down 8-3, 9-4 to Mark Dawes and Greg Harlow.
They looked almost home and hosed, holding a 4-1 overnight advantage with the six singles remaining where they only needed two victories to retain the title. However it didn't quite go to plan and was a complete reversal of last year's event where the Scots trailed after the opening day but roared home to victory after strong results in the singles.
World No.1 Foster was first in action and despite opening his match with a full house against Paxton, only scored on one more end in the first set and lost 9-5 then in the second, never recovered from a poor start that left him 4-0 down after two of the seven end set, eventually it losing 6-4.
In the end, Stepney was left to pull victory from the jaws of defeat. He had lost in the final of the Superbowl Challenge at Newton Hall in Blackpool on Friday, only dropped two ends in the first set to get against Dawes his nose in front 9-3.
In a flurry of activity at the beginning of a do or die second set, Stepney scored two trebles but lost a single and full house, but roared on by his team mates he scored two singles and was happy to concede a double on the last to raise the victory salute 8-7. Although they lost the overall singles result 2-4, they wrapped up the title 6-5 after their 4-1 triples and pairs successes, saw them over the line.
"That was way too close for comfort," said Gordon Neil, the team manager. "All credit to England. They came our fighting in the singles, just as we did last year. Alex Marshall and Mike Stepney won all of their matches but everyone played their part. Both teams fielded twelve individually talented players and each fought to the bitter end.
"It was an exciting spectacle which we were definitely relieved to win!"
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