The Edinburgh Reporter’s Weekly Sports Roundup

Congratulations to Spartans for going top of the Lowland League, and many happy returns go to Hibs’ defender Jordan Forster who turns 20 today. Jordan made his Hibs debut in the red hot atmosphere of Tynecastle last season and helped his team to a 2-1 victory. He is highly thought of at Easter Road and has a big future in the game.

A big ‘well done’ to the Scotland Women’s football team who started their World Cup campaign in style, and also the Under 19s who did likewise in the UEFA Women’s Under-19 Championship

We also congratulate George Watson’s pupil Caitlin O’Brien who won a silver medal in the Junior Female category of the Double-Mini Trampoline event in the Loule World Cup in the Algarve, Portugal. Caitlin is a member of the City of Edinburgh Trampoline Club.

Rugby by Jonny Davis

Edinburgh Rugby experienced a disappointing third round of the 2013/14 RaboDirect PRO12 season this weekend, as they suffered a 44-10 defeat away at the hands of the Ospreys.

There were five British & Irish Lions home side’s squad list but it was young winger, Jeff Hassler who ran in for the Ospreys’ opening try of the game, scoring just 3 minutes into his debut for the Welsh province.

Edinburgh did manage to get on the scoreboard in the first half with Harry Leonard’s penalty on the half-hour mark, but Ospreys continued to press and Eli Walker crossed for their second try of the game just minutes before the break to make it 18-3.

The Gunners were looking for a response after half-time, but an early error from the restart, gifted the home side a chance and Lions hooker, Richard Hibbard, barged over for a try.

Edinburgh did manage to lift their performance for phases in the second half, and Scotland International Tim Visser managed to go over for his 50th RaboDirect PRO12 try with a burst from midfield.

Ospreys were down to 14 men for a period in the second half, as Justin Tipuric saw yellow, but Edinburgh failed to make them pay.

When restored to their full complement, the Welsh side managed to secure their bonus point victory with further tries from Richard Hibbard, Eli Walker and Matthew Morgan, and cap off an evening to forget for Edinburgh Rugby.

The week wasn’t all doom and gloom for Gunner fans however, as the capital club revealed the capture of another exciting new signing in South African back-row forward, Cornell Du Preez.

The 22-year old, who is equally adept playing as number 8, or blindside flanker, arrives in Scotland following an impressive debut Super Rugby season.

The move reunites the young forward with new Edinburgh Rugby coach, Alan Solomons, whom he played under at South African franchise, Southern Kings.

Coach Alan Solomons, expressed his delight on securing the Du Preez’s signature, hailing the player as “a fantastic player”

He added, “Cornell is the complete package. He’s very strong physically, is an exceptionally good carrier, has very good skills and is a powerful and confrontational defender.”

Edinburgh Rugby also announced this week that Argentinian centre, Joaquin Dominguez has joined the club from Buenos Aires side, San insidiro on a two-week trial.

The 26-year, former age-grade international has been in training with the club since Tuesday and will be hoping to make a quick impression on the coaching staff to earn a more long term contract.

Edinburgh will next be in action on Friday 27 September as they take on Llanelli Scarlets in the next round of the RaboDirect PRO12 season.

Rugby by John Preece

Things looked a bit brighter for Edinburgh’s clubs this weekend – apart from PRO12 Edinburgh, of course – with five of the six clubs in the top two tiers winning. As Currie were playing Heriots, then six out of six might have been difficult to achieve. To start there, then.

In the Premiership Heriots took the win at Currie 32-19  http://www.theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2013/09/rugby-currie-v-heriots-2/ for the full match report) after a fairly uninspiring match, which cost Currie two further injured players as well as the points. Edinburgh Academy welcomed Melrose up to Raeburn Place and duly saw off the Borders club 29-21.

Thus there is no change in the relative positions in the league table, Accies and Heriots are still third and fourth – with 18 and 17 points – but have stretched the already yawning gap, in the ‘Edinburgh mini-league’, to 10th place/two point Currie, by five points each due to bonus point wins.

In the National League, Watsonians and Boroughmuir both took bonus point wins, 36-15 and 51-0, at home to Dundee and Selkirk respectively. Stewarts-Melville also joined the party this weekend by beating struggling Biggar 22-14 at Inverleith. 5th October will be the first table-topper clash of the season and anything but a draw will see one of the teams alone at the top, with a clear gap – assuming things proceed according to plan next weekend, of course!

Their league table is also relatively unchanged with Watsonians and Boroughmuir still in first and second, both with 24 league points, although ‘Muir closed the points difference gap a little. Stew-Mel, however, climb a place from seventh to sixth with 10 points.

Web – http://www.photoboxgallery.com/jlp-photography

SPFL

Mixed fortuned once again for the Capital’s teams. Hibs produced their best performance of the season to beat St Mirren 2-0, thanks to goals from James Collins and Paul Heffernan at Easter Road.

Hearts were unlucky to lose 2-1 to Ross County in Dingwall. Gary Locke’s young side led for much of the game thanks to a Calum Paterson goal, but the Staggies equalised with two minutes remaining and grabbed an injury time winner to leave the travelling supporters heartbroken.

Hibs move up to fifth place with 11 points from seven games, whilst Hearts remain bottom on minus eight, nine points adrift.

Both clubs are in action in midweek, Hibs take on Stranraer on Tuesday night at Easter Road and then Hearts face Queen of the South 24 hours later in the League Cup.

Central Taxis East of Scotland League Premier Division

On Friday night, Spartans beat Coldstream 4-0 at Ainslie Park, then the following day Craigroyston beat Civil Service Strollers 2-1 in the Muirhouse derby, Leith Athletic went down 1-4 to League leaders Stirling University at Meadowbank, Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale drew 1-1 with Edinburgh University at Saughton Enclosure and Tynecastle beat Heriot Watt 2-0 at Fernieside.

First Division

Hibs beat Ormiston 2-0 at the East Mains Training Ground thanks to goals from Cody Mulhall and Max Todd. The youngsters remain top of the table with a 100% record of five wins from five games, scoring an impressive 22 times and conceding two.

Afterwards Head of Academy Coaching James McDonaugh told the club website: “I was really happy with our general play; some of our play was highly creative. Our movement and passing was sharp and crisp and I was pleased with the reaction since our game against Hearts where I felt we underachieved. Against Ormiston, we pressed and tackled much better. I have to credit Ormiston for hanging in and staying in the game, they did have a couple of good chances. I ask my players to respect our opponents every week, but to be competitive regardless of how opponents play on the day, but we could have scored a good number more had our finishing been better and this is a key part for our strikers to develop.”

Lowland League

Congratulations to Spartans for going top of the Lowland League with a fine 3-0 away victory over Gretna.

Spartans took the lead in the 13th minute after Whatley headed in from a Kevin Motion cross, then 20 minutes later John Grant added a second from a Danny Main cross to give the visitors a 2-0 lead at half time.

Spartans wrapped the points up then minutes after the break when Motion’s free-kick eluded everyone in the box to find the net.

Spartans Manager Dougie Samuel was delighted with the outcome and told the club website: “I thought it was an excellent team performance today.  I don’t think we had any ‘failures’ in what is a very difficult place to visit and pick up points, so we are delighted with that.”

Malt & Hops Man of the Match: Donal Henretty

Elsewhere Whitehill Welfare beat Edinburgh City 3-1 to leave the Meadowbank side third from bottom with seven points.

Women’s Football

Scotland Women produced a stunning performance on Sunday as they opened their World Cup qualifying campaign with a convincing win in against the Faroe Islands in Torshavn. A double from Leanne Ross and goals from Louise Corsie, Catherine Evans, Jane Ross, Suzanne Lappin and Suzanne Mulvey gave the Scots a 7-0 lead but the Faroes pulled back two late consolation goals to add some respectability to the final score,

The Scotland team: Gemma Fay, Leanne Ross, Leanne Crichton, Hayley Lauder, Kim Little, Megan Sneddon, Jennifer Beattie, Jane Ross, Rachel Louise Corsie, Lisa Catherine Evans, Frankie Brown. Subs: Shannon Lynn, Nicola Docherty, Suzanne Mulvey, Eilish McSorley, Suzanne Lappin, Joelle Murray, Emma Mitchell

The Scots now top Group 4 and go into Thursday’s match against Bosnia-Herzegovina in confident mood.”

In addition, Scotland got the UEFA Women’s Under-19 Championship qualifying campaign off to the perfect start with a 7-0 win over hosts Macedonia in Saturday, in Gareth Evans’ first competitive match as women’s under-19 coach.

Lucy Graham scored the first then Hibs’ Lizzie Arnot netted the second sic minutes later, before Arsova put the ball in to her own net. Clare Williamson then scored from an Arnot corner in added time to put Scotland four up at the break.

Hibs Caroline Weir scored her first with 67 minutes gone, before substitute Richardson made it six, and then the captain added the final goal in additional time when she was fouled in the box by Ana Vaselinova. Caroline stepped up to take the penalty, which was saved by Arsova, but followed up the rebound.

Afterwards Scotland coach Gareth Evans said: “The girls had to be very patient today as, despite what the score-line suggests, Macedonia were very stuffy and difficult to break down.

“The girls did very well to stay calm and keep going. They could easily have become frustrated the longer the first half went on, as we had a lot of early chances.  We got the first goal after half an hour and the floodgates opened after that.

“We scored seven good goals, and we did very well to get the ball wide and get crosses in, which we worked hard on in training.

“We’re very pleased with the start, but we have a tough game coming up on Monday. Georgia lost 5-2 to Romania today, so they will have something to prove when they face us.”

Ice Hockey

On Saturday, the Edinburgh Capitals beat Hull Stingrays 5-3 in Humberside. The Stingrays took a 2-0 lead before Tomas Horna pulled one back from the half way line. Curtis Leinweber equalised early in the second period then added a third off Lucka and Safar to give the Caps a 3-2 lead at the end of the second. Hull then made it all square before Cingel grabbed a fourth.

On Sunday, the Caps fans were brought down to earth after losing 3-0 to Dundee Stars at Murrayfield in the Challenge Cup.

Speedway

The Edinburgh Scotwaste Monarchs were unable to come back from 26 points down in the second leg of the Cup semi-final against Somerset at Armadale on Friday night, and although they recorded a 48-42 win, the final aggregate score was 80-100 against the hosts.

The following night they narrowly lost two very close matches to Workington Comets at Derwent Park, losing 47-43 in the first Playoff encounter, and 46-44 in the Premier League match, despite on-form Craig Cook scoring 15 point maximums in both matches.

They have finished fourth in the PL table but their attention is now firmly on the Playoffs.

Basketball

Boroughmuir Blaze beat City of Edinburgh Kings 77-63 on the Senior Mens’ Scottish Basketball League. Blaze sit top of the table with Kings 7^th

Volleyball

The leagues start next Saturday 28 September.  In the National Men’s League Division 1, City of Edinburgh face Dundee at Queensferry High School @ 2.30pm and the Edinburgh Jets take on Beacon Fire at St Augustine’s RC School @ 3.00pm.

In the Women’s League Division 1 City of Edinburgh meet Edinburgh Jets II at Queensferry High School @ 10.30 and Edinburgh Jets face Su Ragazzi at St Augustine’s @ 12.30.

In the Men’s Division 2 East, NUVOC meet Edinburgh Jets II at Firhill @ 10.00 whilst City of Edinburgh II meet Su Ragazzi at Queensferry High School @ 12.30.

In the Women’s Division 2 NUVOC face Dundee at Firhill High School @ 12.30.

Trampolines

Eleven gymnasts from The City of Edinburgh Trampoline Club (CETC) competed in their first-ever international competition at the Loule World Cup in the Algarve, Portugal last week. The club were awarded the bronze medal behind second-placed Canada and champions and home nation, Portugal in the double mini team event.

There was stiff competition from 47 countries, and George Watson’s pupil Caitlin O’Brien took silver in the Junior Female category of the Double-Mini Trampoline event, with team-mate Ciara Donlevy just missing out on the podium in fourth.

CETC are currently recruiting new members and are looking to start a boys only session if demand is high enough – no experience required. Check out the website for details on classes and venues at www.cityofedinburghtrampolineclub.co.uk