Royal Burgess eye another fast start in Inter Cities Cup

FOR the second year running, Royal Burgess take on Bishopbriggs in the Inter Cities Cup, the annual clash between the Edinburgh and Glasgow champions.

Tomorrow’s first leg is at Bishopbriggs, where Royal Burgess won 6-3 last year and went on to record a comfortable 13-5 aggregate victory. “We were very fortunate last year to win the away leg by such a margin and it made the home tie fairly comfortable,” said Burgess team manager Richard Hughes.

“I don’t expect it to be quite that straightforward this year as they have several very useful youngsters who I am sure will have progressed over the last 12 months.”

The Barnton club are making the journey along the M8 without former Scottish Boys’ champion Stephen Buckley, who is unavailable due to work commitments.

Hughes will also have to wait until the last minute to finalise his team as Sandy Gray and Gordon Archibald have both been in action this week in the Halford Hewitt in Kent.

“It is vital we get a decent result in the first leg and we would then hope to finish things off at home the following week,” he added.

Royal Burgess team: J Fraser, F McCluskey, G Pollock, D Ross, B Tait, I Taylor, V Varadharajan, J Yuille, G Archibald or S Gray.