Golf: Lothians celebrate perfect tenth championship win

Craigielaw's Grant Forrest and Anthony Blaney of Liberton were in the winning side for the second year running in the Dunfermline Building Society-sponsored event.

And backing them up on this occasion were Newbattle's Lee Morgan and Calum Hill of Tantallon.

Blaney, playing the anchor role in the Lothians quartet, produced a superb one-under par 69 to give his side an aggregate of 360, finishing just two shots ahead of Ayrshire, with Fife clinching the bronze medals on 364.

Taking a one-shot lead into the singles and with scoring difficult on a cold and breezy afternoon, a close finish looked likely.

Ayrshire applied the pressure on the leaders with a level-par 70 from Charlie McNeal and a 72 from Euan Walker, backed up by a 73 from Scottish Boys' champion David Wilson.

Fife, whose men's team won last month's Moneygate Scottish Area Team Championship, also burst into contention with the best singles aggregate of 212.

Forrest posted a three-over par 73 as did Morgan, while Hill, a semi-finalist in the Scottish Boys' Championship at Dunbar, went one better with a 72.

That left Blaney needing to score level-par or better to take the title and the Capital kid handled the pressure superbly, going round in 17 pars and a birdie at the second hole, to lead his side home.

"It's brilliant to win the championship again," said Blaney. "We knew we had to go out and put some low scores together as it was pretty tight in the morning compared to last year.

"I sensed I probably had to par the last to give us the win and thankfully I played the hole well. It's nice to know we could perform when the pressure was on."

He added: "Dean Robertson, who helped coach the team, gave us some good advice which was a big help and obviously Grant and I had the experience of winning last year.

"I'll still be eligible to play next year so hopefully I'll have a chance of going for the hat-trick!"