Brora win Dornoch Firth League
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WITH home victories last Saturday and Sunday against the three visiting clubs of Golspie, Royal Dornoch and Tain, Brora recaptured the Dornoch Firth League targe after a gap of four years.
Brora’s last win was in 2010 at Golspie, the course which will host next year’s league programme.
The home side ran up a 6-1 result over Golspie on Sunday afternoon to secure success.
In the absence of Invergordon, who could not raise a team, the draw was rescheduled and Brora opened with a match on Saturday morning against Tain, gaining victory by 6-1.
Tain’s solitary point came from the unexpected individual result of Alan Everett against Brora team captain James MacBeath. The latter found himself two holes down to birdies over the first two holes by Everett and only a matching birdie on the fourth hole, saved the local greenkeeper from being further behind.
Everett was more at home on the Brora greens than his opponent and he ran out a 3 and 2 winner.
But backed up by winning results from Euan Polson over Dougie Thorburn, Calum Stewart over Billy Ferries, Roddie Cameron over RI Mackenzie, Tony Gill over Chris Ilett, George Duncan over Seann Hogg and Robert MacDonald against Kieran Mackay, Brora justified their tag as league favourites.
Golspie took 2.5 points from Brora’s biggest danger, Royal Dornoch. Darren Hexley beat the last county champion to win at Brora, David Pearson, on the last green while Golspie’s team captain William MacBeath justified picking himself after disappointing call-offs from his original line-up when he beat Dornoch’s Bryan Urquhart 2 and 1.
Colin "Scooty" Sutherland then got a half point from Robin Murray in the final game.
Sunday morning was the home side’s big test, the match against holders Royal Dornoch. Polson took a bit of a mauling (5/4) from Dornoch’s number one Chris Mailley, but MacBeath balanced up the score when beating Pearson after 16 holes. But then Dornoch took the lead, spearheaded by team captain Neil Hampton, in game three. Hampton scored a 3 and 2 win over Calum Stewart and Daniel Holden was a 2 and 1 winner over Tony Gill.
But none of the last three Brora players had to go past the 15th green to collect the points in the 4-3 result. George Duncan beat Neil Munro 6/5, Robert MacDonald beat Urquhart 5/3 and Andy Stewart beat Craig Sutherland 6/5.
Brora’s Duncan and MacDonald completed their unbeaten weekend early with big winning scores against their Golspie opponents in the final Sunday afternoon match. Calum Stewart moved up to second place behind Polson in the Brora order to allow them to make a quicker start back to Aberdeen and Edinburgh respectively.
Polson’s final point was taken from Darren Hexley on the last green but Stewart was beaten by Golspie’s assistant greenkeeper Craig Mackay in the overall result that brought Brora’s points total to 16 from three games. Dornoch finished second with 12 points, Tain were on 10 and Golspie four points.
Match results: Saturday — Brora 6, Tain 1. Golspie 2½, Dornoch 4½. Sunday — Brora 4, Dornoch 3. Golspie ½, Tain 6½. Brora 6, Golspie 1. Dornoch 4½, Tain 2½.
