Tennis: Brown given right to roam in tennis tilt

Skipper Mhairi Brown will have a "right to roam" when leading East women at next week's inter-county tennis championships.

Craiglockhart's Mhairi is trying to qualify for the Commonwealth Games and could balance team commitments with simultaneous tournament play.

"We are taking seven players and that could allow me to be excused on Wednesday and Friday," says Mhairi.

Ex-Barnton Park star Katie Rowley, nee Harrison, will travel from her nearby home in Hampshire to augment the East in group five at Havant while Aileen Davis is flying back from the USA to compete alongside Liana Park (Dunfermline), Thistle's Leigh Kasperek as well as Sonia Vickers and Sarah McFadyen (David Lloyd).

East men aim to avoid last year's survival scramble in division two at Cromer.

"We had to win our final two matches," recalls skipper Ross Murdoch who has still to decide whether Thistle club-mate Stuart Crerar or Dunfermline's Sam McNeill. The rest are US-based James McKie and Graeme Dyce, anglo Jonny Barr and Thistle's Steve Guckian, Alan Macdonald and Marcel du Coudray.