Grant Plenderleith plunders £2,500 in Dash for Cash

GIVEN the area of expertise in which Ramsdens operate, it is perhaps appropriate that their cup final sideshow has spawned aspirations of medals in 2014.

The gold-buying sponsors of the Scottish Football League’s Challenge Cup, who yesterday announced an extension to their deal for a further two years, arranged a 60-metre race – branded the Dash for Cash – between five of the lower league’s top sprinters at the Braidwood Motors Company stadium.

Queen’s Park, Dumbarton, Elgin and Cowdenbeath were represented, but it was Stenhousemuir’s Grant Plenderleith, currently on loan at Bo’ness, who stole the show – and won £2,500 for his parent club.

The result, achieved with at least a yard to spare, should have come as no surprise, given the 21-year-old was formerly the second-fastest runner in the United Kingdom in his age group.

Not that he told his competitors. “When I was 14 I was the second-fastest sprinter in Britain,” he recalled. “The time I’m running over 60 metres is comparable to the fastest Scottish sprinters just now.

“Sometimes I do regret choosing football, you look at Scottish sprinting and there aren’t many stars, and especially with the Commonwealth Games coming to Glasgow you do think about it. It’s never too late to change and my contract is up at the end of the season. There’s still another two years until Glasgow – so you never know.”

Given the thrill of Plenderleith’s breakneck brilliance, it was easy to forget there is a cup final to be played on Sunday afternoon. To that end, one can only hope Falkirk manager Steven Pressley is not a believer in omens. Ally Graham, 18, currently on-loan at Dumbarton from Falkirk, who face Hamilton in Sunday’s final, finished fourth out of the five competitors.

“Hopefully it’s not a sign,” said a breathless Graham, recovering from his mad dash in the searing West Lothian sun. “The boy who won it used to be a top sprinter – he didn’t tell us that until the end of the race.”