Golf: Champions Burgess put down a marker

Last year's beaten finalists Kingsknowe, Bruntsfield Links and Swanston New also got off to good starts at home and Musselburgh won at Lothianburn but the result at the Barnton was the one that really stood out.

Baberton are certainly no whipping boys but they were swept aside and Burgess were missing three regulars in John Yuille, Fraser McCluskey and Sandy Gray.

"We are delighted to have started this year's campaign so strongly," said team manager Richard Hughes. "We now have five away matches in a row and finish the section with four home games and we'll need some big performances away from home to keep pace."

Musselburgh, who are in that same Group 4, got their campaign off to a flying start as they won 5-3 at Lothianburn, where Myles Clapperton, Scott Greig, Greg Smail and Andrew Millar delivered decisive points.

Swanston, semi-finalists last year, are also in that group and they teed off with a crushing home win over Prestonfield. "It was a baptism of fire for some of our new recruits," said new Prestonfield team boss Alan McEwan.

Despite seeing Allyn Dick lose his 100 per cent record, Kingsknowe beat Broomieknowe 5-3.

"It was a good performance against a very solid team," said Kingsknowe team boss Bill Buchan. "Broomieknowe almost qualified last year and will clearly do well this year, so this result was very satisfying."

Making his Kingsknowe debut, Davie Ewen produced a typically polished performance to beat former Lothians champion Kevin Hastings.

As well as Kenny Smith's fine 2 and 1 win over Dick, Broomieknowe will have been encouraged by victories for Sean March and Jamie McIntosh over Scott Knowles and Charlie Kivlin.

Kingsknowe's biggest rivals in the battle to top Group 2 could well be Bruntsfield Links and John Cropper's men made an impressive start as they crushed visitors West Linton 7-1.

Former Lothians champion Zander Culverwell got the ball rolling with a good win over Scott Walker, while Charlie Simpson had four birdies in a row in seeing off Stephen Smith. Other wins came from Kevin Cattanach, Euan Paterson, Ally Ritchie, Keith MacKenzie and newcomer David Wallace.

"A good start and we are looking forward to the visit of Kinsknowe and Bill Buchan's pink cap on May 13," said Cropper.

In the other opening match in Group 2, the spoils were shared between Craigmillar Park and the Merchants. Innes Christie, Jamie Yule, Graeme Lewington and Andy Utterson put points on the board for the home side but Richard Craig, Alastair Brown, Mike Leitch and Paul Francis replied for the visitors.

"It was a well-fought match and, with a few early-season mistakes from both teams, a draw was a fair result," said Craigmillar captain Keith Thorburn.

A draw was also the outcome in two Group 3 encounters – Duddingston versus Silverknowes and Torphin Hill against Ratho Park – while Liberton beat Murrayfield in that group's other game. Keith Millar made a welcome and winning return to the Duddingston team but they'll be disappointed to have dropped points.

"The games see-sawed throughout this match but it all came down to the last game out on the course," said Silverknowes team captain Steve Gilhooley. "Graham Robertson came down the 17th one up on John Shepherd and hit two good shots on to the green and made a birdie-4 to secure a hard-fought draw for Silverknowes."

In Group 1, Glencorse were made to fight hard for their 5-2 home win over Mortonhall. Sean McGarvey and Ian Shanks both birdied the last to earn valuable halves, while Derek Thomson recovered from being two down to add to other wins from Keith Young, Mike Louden and Alastair Shanks.

In another tight match in that section – all eight games went to either the 17th or 18th – Newbattle did particularly well on holes 11 through to 15 as they beat Dalmahoy 5-3. Tom Blennerhasset was round in four-under in winning the top match for the visitors.