The Edinburgh Reporter’s Weekly Sports Roundup
This week we send our congratulations to Hibernian Ladies for reaching the Scottish Cup Final where they will face Glasgow City.
Rugby by John Preece
The Championship entered its seventh week with the top four teams within a point of each other. Heriots were the only local winners this week as they won at home, beating Aberdeen Grammar 21-18. Currie and Edinburgh Accies were also playing at home but both went down to heavy defeats. 48-15 was Glasgow Hawks win at Currie and Accies suffered an equally humiliating defeat, going down 30-8 against Gala.
Heriots now share second place in the table with Gala, courtesy of Gala’s bonus point win, while Accies retain fifth place. Currie, meanwhile, seem to be stuck at the foot of the table with only the relegation play-off’s to look forward to at the end of the season.
Week seven of the National League saw a tasty match up at Meggetland as Boroughmuir welcomed Watsonians over the road to face their second defeat in a row, with a 32-25 win to cement their place alone at the top of the table. The other Edinburgh side, Stewarts-Melville had a narrow escape as Dundee failed to convert 80+ minute of pressure, leaving the Inverleith side with a 21-18 victory. (See match report on Edinburgh Reporter website)
Positions at the top of their table remain the same with Boroughmuir stretching their lead to seven points, with 34, over Watsonians in second with 27. Stew-Mel’s win gives them their second step up the table in a row as they climb one place to fifth.
Photograph by http://www.photoboxgallery.com/jlp-photography
Rugby by Jonny Davis
Edinburgh Rugby will spend another week at the foot of the RaboDirect PRO12 league table, following a 29-12 defeat to Cardiff Blues at the Arms Park on Sunday.
The return of captain Greig Laidlaw brought some much needed composure to the capital side, and at the midway point, the Gunners were well in the hunt, with the scores at 13-12.
After the break, Alan Solomons’ side continued to show signs of improvement, putting the home side under some extended periods of pressure, but it was Cardiff who found the next score.
Despite some much improved defence from Edinburgh, they leaked a trio of penalties and were punished by the boot of British & Irish Lion, Leigh Halfpenny.
At 22-12, Edinburgh’s infringement count continued to rise and replacement back-row forward, Cornell du Preez saw his debut for the club marked with a sin-bin.
With a man advantage, Cardiff looked to turn the screw, and on the 66th minute, Halfpenny scythed through the Gunners’ defence and sparked a flowing move allowing another Lion, Alex Cuthbert, to touch down for his second try of the day.
Unfortunately it’s another loss for Edinburgh Rugby, against a very good Cardiff side.
Fans will be hoping that Alan Solomons’ rebuilding project will soon start yielding some more frequent, and sustained glimpses of improvement, as the Heineken Cup gets underway next weekend, with Edinburgh taking on Munster at Murrayfield on Saturday.
Football
A bad day at the office for Hearts on Saturday. The Gorgie fans started the day in an optimistic mood, knowing that a win over St Mirren would reduce the deficit to six points and produce a massive confidence boost for the games to come, however a first half goal from John McGinn then another from Paul McGowan after the break following a mistake from Jamie McDonald secured the points for Danny Lennon’s men. (See match report on Edinburgh Reporter website)
After the game manager Gary Locke urged his players not to feel sorry for themselves, telling BBC Scotland: “Unfortunately, we didn’t take our chances. We’ve just got to raise the spirits of the players and hopefully we can get back on track in a fortnight’s time. We had a couple of moments of slackness which gave them a wee lift. We still had chances even at 1-0 down. Callum Paterson’s hit one over the bar. If that goes in, it’s an absolutely different atmosphere around the stadium. With him missing that and them going right up the park and scoring the second goal, it deflates everyone. The boys have done great so far this season. It’s a set-back for us, there’s no doubt about but one thing we can’t do, we can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We’ve just got to pick the heads up. It’s a bad day at the office but we need to move. It was never going to be easy. We had a reasonable start to the season and recently we’ve not picked up the results that we need but we’ll still keep going. I’ll certainly not give up.”
Hibs take on Partick Thistle at Firhill on Monday night.
The League Cup quarter final will be shown live on BBC.
Scottish Cup
Edinburgh City drew 4-4 with Fraserburgh.
City opened the scoring with a Peter Stenhouse 25-yard thunderbolt after just nine minutes, but the Highlanders equalised 10 minutes later through Scott Fowlie.
Fraserburgh were then awarded a penalty but Mark Cowie’s effort was saved keeper Allan MacIntosh.
Just before half time Fraserburgh took the lead from a Graham Johnston shot then added a third seconds after the restart as Donaldson fired into his own net.
City hit back two minutes later from a Daryl Devlin header, but Johnston restored Burgh’s two-goal cushion before Shaun Harrison pulled one back for City. With time running out, Donaldson made amends for his own goal with a last-gasp equaliser.
Elsewhere, Spartans lost 1-0 to Albion Rovers at Cliftonhill.
A sizeable Spartan Army headed to Coatbridge hoping for a cup shock and started off brightly against their SFPL 2 opponents with John Grant sending a dangerous cross into the Rovers box within the first minute.
The first clear-cut chance of the afternoon fell to Spartans in the 39th minute when a Grant cross found the head of Keith McLeod but his effort was saved by Parry in the Rovers goal.
Rovers took the lead in the 56th minute when on-loan striker Mark McGuigan’s miss-hit cross-cum-shot spun over the head of Spartan’s keeper Bennett.
Whatley then went down in the box under the challenge of Kevin Nicol, and there were calls for a penalty from the travelling support, but instead the referee booked the midfielder for simulation.
With 12 minutes remaining Grant was sent off for a second bookable offence and the Ainslie Park outfit’s chance to progress in the competition was lost.
Malt and Hops Man of the Match: Mark Whately
Spartans: Bennett, Cennerazzo, Main, Sivewright, MacKinnon, Grant, Brown, Whatley, Henretty, McLeod, Motion, Subs: Bremner, Anderson, Ross, O’Donnell, Beasley, Blaikie, Gilpin
Alex Jack Cup Semi-Finals
Stirling University 2 Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale
Leith Athletic 6 Eyemouth United 1
East of Scotland League Premier Division
Craigroyston 3 Coldstream 1
Edinburgh University 1 Stirling University 2
Heriot Watt University 3 Civil Service Strollers 2
East of Scotland League First Division
Hibs 8 Berwick Rangers Reserves 0
Hibs continued their 100% record thanks to goals from Irish youngster Gareth McCaffrey (3), Jay Doyle (2), Max Todd, Jamie Beaton and Scott Martin.
Women’s Football
Congratulations to Hibernian Ladies who beat Rangers 5-4 on penalties to progress to the Scottish Cup Final. The teams were level 0-0 at full time then 1-1 after extra time. Joelle Murray tweeted later: “We left everything out on the pitch today, worked so hard and played with huge heart. Proud of every single one of my team-mates.”
Hibs will face Glasgow City who beat Celtic 3-0 in the other semi-final.
Speedway
Edinburgh Monarchs grabbed their place in this year’s Premier League Play Off Grand Final after disposing of Ipswich Witches 53-37 at Armadale on Friday night.
The Monarchs ended the campaign three points ahead of Workington Comets on 11 points.
Monarchs : Cook 14 points, Tabaka 11 points, Pijper 7 points, Fricke 7 points, Sneddon 7 points, Vissing 6 points, Carr 1 point.
Formula One
West Lothian’s Paul Di Resta spun out and slid sideways into a tyre barrier in the middle of the race in Korea at the weekend.
It is now four successive races that the 26-year-old has failed to finish, and the last six in which he has failed to score a point, including the Singapore Grand Prix two weeks ago when he ploughed his Force India into a wall. (See race report on Edinburgh Reporter website)
Athletics
Good luck to 75 year old John Ross from Cannonmills who flies out to Utah this week to represent Scotland at the Huntsman World Senior Games for athletes over 50.
John has won over 400 medals in his illustrious career to date and this time he will take part in the javelin, 50 meters, 100 meters, 200 meters, 400 meters and 800 meters.
Cycling
City of Edinburgh’s Katie Archibald won bronze in the individual pursuit at last week’s British Track Championships then took silver along with Fife’s Charline Joiner in the Madison.
Katie has been selected for the European Championships in Holland later this month.
Ice Hockey
Saturday 5 October Fife Flyers 5 Edinburgh Capitals 0
Flyers dominated the Capitals in this Challenge Cup group A match and booked their own place in the quarter finals.
Flyers took charge of the game in a first period where they built up a 3-0 lead. Matt Reber opened the scoring after 10.54 on the powerplay then Matt Nickerson scored at 12.07 before Danny Stewart made it three at 16.06.
Jordan Fulton made it 4-0 on the powerplay at 24.34 then Rok Pajic added a fifth at 50.01.
On Sunday, the Capitals took an early lead against the Cardiff Devils, however the Welsh side fought back to win 3-1.
Basketball
City of Edinburgh Kool Kats beat St Mirren West College 64-51 in the Senior Women’s League on Friday whilst City of Edinburgh Kings lost 64-77 to St Mirren West College on Saturday in the Senior Men’s League.
The Kings under 18s fared better beating St Mirren 75-58
Volleyball
In Division One Men, The City of Edinburgh beat Beacon Fire 3-0 away from home, 18-25, 15-25 and 23-25, whilst Edinburgh Jets beat Dundee 3-0 in Tayside, 22-25, 15-25 and 23-25.
In Division One Women, City of Edinburgh beat Kyle Team Ayrshire 3-0, 18-25, 14-25 and 7-25, Edinburgh Jets beat Aberdonia 3-0, 15-25, 12-25 and 12-25, and Edinburgh Jets II lost 3-0 to Troon Team Ayrshire, 25-9, 25-12 and 25-6.
In Division Two East, City of Edinburgh II beat Beacon Flame 3-0, 17-25, 25-27 and 17-25, NUVOC beat Bellshill Cardinals 3-2, 25-21, 22-25, 25-21, 21-25, 14-16 and Edinburgh Jets II lost 3-1 to Su Ragazzi II, 25-22, 19-25, 17-25 and 18-25
In Division Two Women, NUVOC beat South Ayrshire 3-0 20-25, 12-25 and 14-25.