WITH Reivers A on a free week, the High Level A blew a great chance to close the gap at the top of the Borders Pool League and dropped three places to fourth after losing heavily to Reivers B.
Ship A and Waverley A both won tight games to go joint second.
In Division Two, Bridge B and Niki’s B closed up to the Station with good wins, while Hawick duo High Level B and Waverley B both had unexpected wins as well to stay clear of the bottom.
Results – Division One: Reivers B (Gala) 7 High Level A (Hawick) 2; Waverley A (Hawick) 5 Dryburgh (Newtown) 4; Ship B (Melrose) 3 Ship A (Melrose) 6.
Division Two: Bridge A (Gala) 2 Bridge B (Gala) 7; Frankies (Hawick) 2 Nikis Bar (Gala) 7; High Level B (Hawick) 9 Abbotsford (Gala) 0; Red Lion (Kelso) 4 Waverley B (Hawick) 5.
Elsewhere, the first event in the Borders Region Six Tour got under way at the Reivers in Galashiels, and Scott Simpson got off to a great start, winning a rather tight final against a plucky John Jardine.
The final 4-0 scoreline certainly didn’t reflect the game.
In the semi-finals both went to the final frame with Simpson somewhat lucky to edge his old rival Scott Bowers and Jardine sneaking past Ian Middlemas. Both games could easily have gone the other way.
Simpson told TheSouthern: “I struggled early on and old fox Bowers had me in the semi but I dug deep and a slight lack of experience cost John in the final.
“There was a great turn-out despite the bad weather and I am pleased to have started off in good form.
“However, the standard was tremendous and I can’t afford to rest on my laurels in the future with so many improving players who surprised even the top guys.
“Hopefully even more will appear at Tour 2 to make the competition even better.”
Some tremendous earlier games saw a few unlucky performances. Jason Lyall pushed Bowers to the brink while John Cassidy had two great wins before falling to Simpson.
The match up of the day saw Ian McCombe take out Dave Buchan, only to see teammate Middlemas take his scalp.
Other notable performances came from steady Rob Shiel, Colin Drummond and 16-year-old junior Jordan Simpson.