Golf: Stand-ins shine for Mid

MID made a stunning start against West in the 2010-2011 Fife and Lothians Golf Associations Winter League as the honours were shared in the other opening match.

In addition to home advantage at Deer Park, West also had the strongest-looking team on paper as Mid launched the campaign missing a few of their leading lights.

But, to the delight of visiting team manager John Allan, the players given their chance all showed up well as Mid stunned their opponents with a 7…-2… triumph.

Alex Robertson certainly grabbed his opportunity, beating former Lothians champion Steven Armstrong.

In a game West will want to forget in a hurry, their only wins came from Louis Gaughan and Keith Reilly. At Gifford, East and Fife drew 5-5 in a hard-fought encounter.

Former Lothians champion Mark Hillson drew first blood for East, edging home against Gary Sharp in the top match by virtue of a winning birdie-4 at the 18th.

Behind them, James White gave Stephen Neilson a putting lesson in romping home 6 and 5 and, despite a couple of big wins for East at the bottom of the order, the outcome came down to the last match out on the course.

Niall Gemmell, just back from a business trip to China, could not quite catch Keith Anderson, losing the 16th and 17th as Fife gain a merited halved match.

This weekend sees the second phase of matches, with Fife entertaining West at Lundin and Mid welcoming East to Lothianburn.