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.
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Hide AdAlex 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.