St Rule Trophy 2011

The St Rule Trophy takes place at St Andrews this weekend. Good luck to Midlothian players Rachel Watton (Mortonhall), Claire Hargan (Strathmore) and Jane Turner (Craigielaw). Think it may be a bit windy girls so hold on to your hats!

Swanston 9 holes May

Firstly apologies girls for the late posting of these results. The webmaster was on hols and then forgot! The monthly 9 hole competition was played on Swanston's Templar Course on Sunday 15 May. The normal windy and cold conditions prevailed! The results were as follows:

Handicap
1st Lisa Macpherson 42 (21) 21
2nd Eilidh Crawford 32 (9.5) 22.5
3rd Hannah Wilson 43 (18) 25

Non-handicap
1st Ella Marshall 51
2nd Emily Rigg 53
3rd Victoria Cameron 61

Thanks Sharon Macpherson for organising, to the parents who helped, and to Sandra and Caroline for giving their support.

Well done girls - some great scores and some great improvement.

Herald & Post Trophy

The semi-finals of the inaugural Herald & Post Trophy were played at the Braids last night. In the double foursomes format, Broomieknowe beat Harburn 7&5 and Comisburn beat Hardale 9&8. The final between Broomieknowe and Comisburn will take place on Saturday (28th) at 1.40 pm. Spectators welcome!

East Girls Win Mhairi McKay Trophy

Congratulations to the East Girls who won the Mhairi McKay Trophy for the first time since 2007, at Bothwell Castle Golf Club last weekend. The team which included three Midlothian players, Gabrielle Macdonald (Craigielaw), Kate McIntosh (Broomieknowe)and Hannah Scott (Broomieknowe), beat the West Girls by 7 1/2 matches to 1/2. The girls played great golf in extremely windy and testing conditions. Well done girls!

NEW LADIES TOURNAMENT IN EDINBURGH: THE HERALD & POST TROPHY

Anne Brownie provides some background to the new Herald & Post Trophy to be competed for over the Braids later this month....

The Herald & Post Trophy has come about because of a desire by the Scotsman Publications group and Edinburgh Leisure to stage a ladies’ competition alongside the historic Dispatch Trophy for men (sponsored by the Evening News). The format for the inaugural event is double foursomes, off scratch as for the Dispatch Trophy.

It was decided to get the new event off the ground by inviting participation of four teams in 2011 in order to test interest and then decide the basis of future entries. The basis on which invitations were made was the order of qualification for the matchplay stages of the 2010 Gibson Cup. The top qualifiers over the Braids golf course last September were invited to form teams of four to compete in the inaugural Herald & Post Trophy. The initial interest in this new event has been good and ladies are already keen to know more about how to enter in future years (which has yet to be confirmed).

The Draw for the Herald & Post Trophy semifinals on Thursday 26th May (from c.5.50pm) is:
Harburn represented by Linda Boyle, Dorothy Wilson, Arlene McGarty and Alison McBride.
Vs
Broomieknowe represented by Sandra Hennessy, Linda Wemyss, Wendy Nicholson and Kate McIntosh

Hardale represented by Aileen Kennedy, Fiona Smith, Anne Stokes and Elaine Wilson
Vs
Comisburn represented by Viv Curran, Karina Matson, Mary Stark and Anne Brownie.

The Final will be played following the Dispatch Trophy Final early afternoon on Saturday 28th May. Spectators will be welcome on both Thursday and Sunday.

As an aside, this year’s Gibson Cup is being held on 1st and 2nd October; entries to be sent to Edinburgh Leisure with further information or an e-version of the entry form available from Anne Brownie.

Scottish Ladies (Close) Amateur Championship 2011

Congratulations to our Midlothian girls who have done fantastically well at Machrihanish. Seven have qualified in the top 32 for the Championship matchplay stages. Well done to Rachael Watton who finished joint second with rounds of 74 & 77. The others to qualify are Jane Turner, Karen Marshall, Noreen Fenton, Wendy Nicholson, Gabrielle MacDonald and Kirsten Blackwood.
Kate McIntosh just finished outside the top 32 and will play in the Clark Rosebowl matchplay.
The best County team was won by Midlothian who won the McNeil Trophy - well done Rachael, Jane and Gabrielle.
Rachael also won the Glover 21st Anniversary Cup for the lowest gross score in round 2, pipping Noreen Fenton by the bih. Noreen did, however, win the Lyon Salver for having the best net in round 2.
The matchplay stages begin this morning and you can keep up to date with how the girls are doing by logging on to http://www.slga.co.uk/ - live scoring.
Well Done Girls and good luck with the matchplay.

Good Luck!

Good luck to Midlothian members who are playing in various tournaments over the next few weeks. Kirsten Blackwood (Glencorse), Gabrielle Macdonald (Craigielaw, Karen Marshall (Baberton), Wendy Nicholson (Broomieknowe), Kate McIntosh (Broomieknowe), Rachael Watton (Mortonhall), Jane Turner (Craigielaw), Noreen Fenton (Dunbar), Pamela Williamson (Baberton) and Linda Bain (Lochend), all compete in the Scottish Ladies'(CLOSE) Amateur Championship at Machrihanish Golf Club next week, and Rachael Watton (Mortonhall), Claire Hargan (Strathmore) and Jane Turner (Craigielaw) in the St Rule Trophy the following weekend. Good luck to you all.

Midsummer Foursomes

Eight-three couples took part in the Midsummer Foursomes at Liberton Golf Club today. The sun shone for most of the day, except when the Captain and Vice Captain were playing and the heavens opened. (I think someone was tyring to tell us something). But everyone seemed to have an enjoyable day and some good golf was played (by most). The results were:

Scratch - Ray Lynch & Lyn Wilson (Murrayfield) 79
1st Handicap - Carol Scott & Sally McIntosh (Murrayfield 84 (19) 65
2nd Handicap - Lindy Wemyss (Broomieknowe) & Judy Buchan (Ratho Pk) 80 (12.5) 67.5
3rd Handicap - Eleanor Young and Heather Braid (Liberton) 84 (15.5) 68.5

Many thanks to Agnes and Janet for all their hard work and to the Liberton Golf Club and the ladies who helped, especially Anne Hume who did a fantastic job today despite the Captain's attempts to confuse her.

Kingsknowe Win Inter-Club

Congratulations to the Kingsknowe Ladies team of Louise Fraser, Gill Petrie, Kate Rorke and Sheila Lyon who won the Edinburgh Inter-Club at Newbattle yesterday for the first time in 24 years. (I am told one member played in that match, but I'm sure that's not true!). They beat Murrayfield in the first round 5&3, the holders Baberton in the 2nd round 4&3 and Musselburgh in the semi-final 2&1, to reach the final against Broomieknowe who were looking strong in their path to the final. In the first match Kate and Shelia took on the strong pairing of Wendy Nicholson and Kate McIntosh and despite a strong start, were 2 down playing the 17th. But Louise and Gill sealed it with an emphatic 7 shot win over Hannah Scott and Katherine Anderson to record a 5&4 team victory.

Results:
Round 1
Newbattle beat Royal Musselburgh 10&9
Turnhouse beat Merchants 1up
Broomieknowe beat Craigmillar Park 5&3
Ratho Park beat Torphin Hill 12&10
Musselburgh beat Lothianburn 4&3
Prestonfield beat Liberton 4&1
Kingsknowe beat Murrayfield 5&3
Baberton beat Glencorse 2&1

Round 2
Newbattle beat Turnhouse 1up
Broomieknowe beat Ratho Park 6&3
Musselburgh beat Prestonfield 6&5
Kingsknowe beat Baberton 4&3

Semi finals
Broomieknowe beat Newbattle 8&7
Kingsknowe beat Musselburgh 2&1

Final
Kingsknowe beat Broomieknowe 5&4

Another 19 year wait ........

This time last year the headline was "A 19 year wait" as Linda Caine won the Midlothian Championship for the first time. Well guess what, 19 years after winning her last title, Baberton's Karen Marshall is once again Midlothian County Champion.

Its was another lovely day at Kingsknowe Golf as our President Janet Wake got the semi finals underway. In the first semi, Karen Marshall was in tremendous form, beating six time champion Claire Hargan 7 & 6. The second semi proved to be a great match and a real battle between Louise Fraser and Kate McIntosh, Louise eventually winning on the 18th (2up).



The B Championship final was also played in the morning and was won by Kingsknowe Ladies Captain Elaine Lumsden, who beat Dalmahoy's Carole Mason 5&4.






In this afternoon's Championship final, Karen carried on where she left off in the morning. She eagled the par 5 3rd and birdied the 6th to be out in 1 under par. She was always in the driving seat and eventually defeated Louise 7&6. A fantastic display of golf Karen and a well deserved champion.





Many thanks to Kingsknowe Golf Club for hosting our County Championships. The course was great and your sun lounge and patio, complete with 'sunshine to order', superb! Thanks to Anne Brownie and Caroline McIntosh for refereeing the finals and to President Janet for starting everyone off. Thanks also to Agnes for all her excellent organisation and to all the supporters and caddies on the day.



Many congratulations to Karen and Elaine our 2011 champions, to runners up Louise and Carole, and to everyone who played this week.