Golf: Millar aims to earn a mention in Dispatch

AS the 111th Evening News Dispatch Trophy resumes at the Braids tonight, medical bulletins have been posted by two of the 16 clubs left standing in the Capital's leading team tournament being staged in association with Edinburgh Leisure.

Happily, Keith Millar is hoping to be fit enough to take his place alongside four-times Lothians champion Stuart Smith in the Temple team up against Heriot's but Kenny Alexander will still be sidelined when his club, Cramond, face Lochend.

For Millar, Temple's two matches so far in this year's event – they beat Ye Monks of Ye Braids then Munro Heating at the weekend – were a major test following his recent return from a lengthy spell on the sidelines.

"He couldn't play for nearly two years due to a serious knee problem and I think the worst thing for him was that the doctors couldn't really get to the bottom of the problem," said team-mate Gus Santana.

"Thankfully, due to a combination of rest and treatment, he was able to start playing golf again a couple of months ago and, despite the Braids being a real test for him, I don't think he's had any problems."

Alexander was in the Cramond side that reached the semi-finals two years ago but has been reduced to the role of spectator this time around due to knee trouble as well.

"I've not been able to play at all since January and am actually going in for an MRI scan on it this week," he revealed after watching his clubmates progress at the weekend. Semi-finalists for the last two years, Temple, a club within Duddingston, still have two teams in the hunt. Their Seniors side, which comprises of some well-kent faces in Ian Macaskill, Iain Stavert, Ian Fraser and Hinton Bootland take on Carrickvale tonight in the third-round.

On paper, it looks a formidable task against the team that is bidding to lift the trophy for the fourth year running but, between them, Messers Macaskill, Stavert, Fraser and Bootland have been around the block a fair few times and certainly won't prove pushovers.

Impressive as they were at the weekend, Silverknowes won't be taking anything for granted either when they bid to move a step closer to getting their hands back on the trophy at the expense of Longniddry 918.

The East Lothian team are being represented by four players all off five or less, though it's doubtful that any of them have been as impressive lately as Paul Ross.

A newcomer in the Silverknowes side this year, he's shot three five-under-par 66s over his home course recently and is down to scratch.

Ross won the Silverknowes junior championship four years in a row as a teenager and also set the course record with a 63 before he stopped playing for about three years.

He's got the bug again, though, and, while this may be his first Dispatch Trophy as a player, he's been up at the Braids plenty times supporting the players who are his team-mates this week and also plays a lot on the course. "I was a bit nervous on Sunday (Silverknowes started their campaign in the second round after receiving a bye] but once I got my first tee shot out of the way I was fine," said Ross, a postman in the city. In a clash between two teams with punchy names, FORE, a side consisting of three Liberton members plus Mark Timmins, the former Lothians champion who now plays his golf at Pumpherston, take on RICS, which, of course, is the abbreviation for the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.

John Liddel, David Kerr and the evergreen Robert Jack are those Liberton members and, as a club, FORE has mushroomed more than its founders ever imagined.

"It was started by a group of members who play golf together and we've now got 26 members, including one who lives in Yeovil," said Kerr. "He's Steven Gibbon, a member at Liberton who moved down south, and has kept in touch.

"Every year or so we meet somewhere down in England and have a little match involving four players he brings up from Yeovil and four of us."

In the first match on the tee tonight, Thistle Thursday will be hoping local knowledge can help them against a strong-looking BBT, for whom David Marshall will be keen to avoid a repeat of the shank that saw his playing partner, Kevin Messer, have to play their second at the 13th on Sunday from down on the 11th fairway!

Riccarton, the 2005 winners, take on Hailes, who are long overdue a decent run in the event, while the remaining tie of the night is a tasty-looking one between Stewart's Melville and Watsonians. "It should be a good match," predicted Andrew Hogg, who believes Watsonians have pulled off a coup by securing the services of John Nisbet, a scratch man at Baberton, for this year's title assault.

For their match against Temple, Heriot's will be without John Archibald, but as a commitment at Dunbar Golf Club, where he's the club secretary, ended his 2010 event prematurely, one wit has had a bit of fun at the two-time winner's expense.

Posting a comment on scotsman.com, someone wrote: "Archie was beaten in the first Dispatch Trophy final in 1890 representing Heriot's as a 6th former, narrowly losing to a St Andrews select led by Old Tom Morris!"

Tonight's third-round ties: 4.30pm Thistle Thursday v BBT; 4.40pm Longniddry 918 v Silverknowes; 4.50pm FORE v RICS; 5pm Temple v Heriot's; 5.10pm Carrickvale v Temple Seniors; 5.20pm Riccarton v Hailes; 5.30pm Stewart's Melville v Watsonians; 5.40pm Cramond v Lochend.