Area Championship Success for Lothians Boys

Sunday 6th June 2010

Lothians stormed to a record ninth title in the Dunfermline Building Society Boys Area Team Championship at Peebles this afternoon with a four-shot victory over Lanarkshire.

Scottish Boys Champion Grant Forrest and Lothians Junior Championship runner-up Anthony Blaney set the tone with a superb four-under par 66 in the morning foursomes and despite a strong challenge from Lanarkshire and the South in the afternoon, the team held on to clinch well deserved victory.

A two-over par 72 from 16-year-old Forrest was matched by West Linton’s Fraser Thain in the singles while Blaney’s four-over par 74 was good enough to maintain the team’s comfortable lead. Kingsknowe’s Graeme Duncan posted a non-counting 76 but their aggregate score of 356, six-over par, was too low for their challengers.

A delighted team manager Paul Gibson said:

"It was a real team effort out there today and all the boys played their part. We played as a team and that was reflected by our foursomes scores this morning which gave us a good lead. They still had to go out a finish the job off in the singles and credit to the boys who achieved just that and gave us a fantastic win."

"We prepared really thoroughly with several practice rounds down at Peebles and that has certainly paid off. We worked hard on getting the right balance in the team and in the foursomes and so we’re delighted to come here and win the trophy." he added.

A fine afternoon performance from Lanarkshire gave them the runners-up spot with Craig Ross firing a two-under par 68 in the best of their quartet, while the South were edged out on a countback on the same aggregate score. Ayrshire’s Marc Smith (Troon Welbeck) took the Niagara Cup for the best individual score with a three-under par 67.

Leaderboard:

1. Lothians 356
2. Lanarkshire 360
3. South  360
4. Ayrshire 362 Clackmannanshire 362 Fife 362
7. Borders  363
8. Renfrewshire 366 Stirlingshire 366