Midlothian miss out on title twice through rules mix-up

It has emerged that Mid should have won last year's event at Baberton instead of being pipped for the crown.

Wrongly, halved games were included in the countback which saw Northern Counties walk away with the title.

And salt was rubbed into Mid wounds by the fact they would have won this year's event at Bothwell Castle if the same method had been used.

"This year, an SLGA official discovered that, according to the rules of the competition, games which had been halved were not included in any countback and the wrong rules had been played to in previous years," said Tracy Laughland, who has just stepped down as captain of Midlothian County Ladies' Golf Association.

"The captains were informed of this change in procedure before this year's competition started, but that made it no easier to come to terms with when we realised that, had the halved games been counted, MCLGA would have been lifting the trophy.

"What made it worse was that half points had been counted in 2009 and, if they had not been and the rules were as per this year, Mid would again have lifted the trophy.

"To lose out two years running by a change in the rules was a really hard fact to come to terms with."