Golf: Royal perfect ten makes Summer League history

The Barnton club earned a place in the record books as they made it ten wins out of ten with a 6-1 home success over Lothianburn.

"Having won our first three matches – two away from home – we were reasonably confident we would progress to the quarter-finals," reflected team manager Richard Hughes.

"In order to keep us focused, I have kept banging on about trying to go through the section with a 100 per cent record, which has never been done in Summer League history."

The Burgess went into their final game missing four regulars, but Stephen Buckley set them on their with a 6 and 4 success over Alex McKenzie, the pair racing round in just over two hours.

James Ross, John Yuille, Grant Hill, Brian Tait and Gordon Archibald followed suit while young Varun Varadharajan added the half point.

"In light of the fact we were missing four regulars, the team's performance was fantastic and they are a credit to themselves and their club," added Hughes.

"We now await our quarter-final opponents but are delighted with our form. Like I said last yea, someone is going to have to come and take the title off us – we will not be giving it away!"

Baberton, who haven't fired on all cylinders in this campaign, beat Swanston New in the same group, club champion Andy Laurence maintaining his good form with a win over the ever-improving Malcolm Campbell.

Glencorse guaranteed top spot in Group 1 as they made home advantage count against Turnhouse.

Keith Young, who was three-under for the 14 holes played, leading the way for the Milton Bridge men with a good win over Steven Armstrong.

Despite his opponent holing his second shot for an eagle-2 at the second, Ian Shanks also won, as did Derek Thomson, Colin Deans and Iain Melville.

"A good team performance and we are delighted to have guaranteed top spot in a hard section with a game to go," said Alastair Shanks.

Dalmahoy boosted their hopes of going through with Glencorse as they beat Mortonhall, who were undone by wins from Steve Smith, Stuart George, Robert Carson, Tom Blennerhassett, Dougie Hunter and Chris Brown.

Kingsknowe and Bruntsfield are still battling it out to be the top dogs in Group 2 after they both won their latest matches.

In what could have been a potential banana skin, Kingsknowe beat West Linton 6-2 with young Graeme Duncan responding admirably to the challenge of being sent out at the top of the order as he beat Darren Coyle.

Allyn Dick, Mike Foley, Steven McCulloch and Charlie Kivlin also won for the home side, with Andy Rowe and Scott Knowles adding a further point with halves in their matches. "Another excellent performance against a very good side," noted Kingsknowe team manager Bill Buchan. "This game was full of excellent golf from both sides and we just sneaked through in a barrage of birdies."

Counterpart Simon Mackenzie, who lost to an on-form Mike Foley as the Kingsknowe man needed just 18 putts in 14 holes, added: "This was always going to be a hard game."

West Linton bounced back to win at Craigmillar later in the week and now face a crunch clash tomorrow before bringing the curtain down on their campaign at the Merchants.

Talking of the Merchants, they lost 5-3 at home to Broomieknowe, who are shaping up to be a force to be reckoned with in the future, even if they fail to make it to the knock-out phase this time.

Things are also looking up for Prestonfield and, in a Group 4 clash, they won at Lothianburn, where Scott Johnston maintained his recent good form.

"A tight match which we really needed to win to have any chance of second spot," conceded Lothianburn's Chris Hughes.

In their second game of the week, Prestonfield were understrength for a trip to Musselburgh, who are now in a strong position to claim second spot in that section.

In Group 3, it's still looking tight for second place behind Silverknowes, who lost for the second week running as they went down 5-2 at Ratho Park, where Scott Walker, Richard Mackenzie-Smith, Graham Binnie, John Thomson and David Campbell were the heroes for the home team.

Liberton are still in the frame after beating Ratho and Torphin at home in their last two outings, while Duddingston secured a crucial win against Murrayfield.