Rugby by John Preece
In spite of leading 22-11 at half time, Edinburgh allowed Ospreys to get within a single score during the second half, but fine kicking from Carl Bezuidenhout kept them in the lead and they won the match 31-25. Full report is available elsewhere in the ‘Sports’ pages.
In the RBS Premiership Heriots and Edinburgh Academy both lost – Heriots 38-31 away to Glasgow Hawks and Accies 22-11 away at Ayr. Currie on the other hand, belied their poor start to the season with a 45-17 at home against Hawick.
Heriots are still third with 54 points, but Accies are now seventh with 30. Currie, however, continue their meteoric rise of the last few fixtures and have climbed out of the ‘relegation zone’ to lie in sixth place, also with 30 points, but one fewer loss than Accies.
In the National League, Stewarts/Melville almost ‘did an Edinburgh’ but they also held on for their 27-22 win against Kelso at home (Full report is available elsewhere in the ‘Sports’ pages).
Boroughmuir continued their amble through the fixture list with a 22-8 win at Biggar and Watsonians – vying for a play-off place with Stew-Mel – beat GHA 45-15. With both teams winning with bonus points, it’s all down to the final round at Myreside in a couple of weeks.
The table is unchanged with Boroughmuir – now Champions – Stew-Mel and Watsonians filling the top three places with 73, 62 and 58 points respectively.
SPFL Football
Friday night football came to the capital for the first time when Dundee United visited Easter Road and secured a comfortable 3-1 win despite missing two penalties.
Nadir Ciftci opened the scoring in the 43rd minute but Hibs fought back immediately through Jordon Forster. Gavin Gunning put the Tayside club 2-1 up eleven minutes after the break and substitute Farid El Alagui wrapped things up near the end.
Tom Taiwo was sent off after receiving two yellow cards.
On Saturday Hearts travelled to Motherwell and lost 4-1 leaving the youngsters stranded at the bottom of the table.
Goals from Iain Vigurs, Lionel Ainsworth and John Sutton gave ‘Well a 3-0 lead before Callum Paterson pulled one back. James McFadden added a fourth near the end,
Hibs remain in 7th place three points behind St Johnstone whilst Hearts are now 20 points behind Ross County and look certainties to be relegated.
Elsewhere congratulations to former Hibs’ star Leigh Griffiths who scored his first hat-trick for Celtic and commiserations to ex Hibs’ striker Steven Fletcher whose Sunderland team were beaten 3-1 in the League Cup final at Wembley by Manchester City.
Scottish Sun Lowland League
Spartans extended their lead at the top of the Scottish Sun Lowland League with a 4-0 win over Threave Rovers.
The north Edinburgh side took the lead in the 31st minute through Chris Anderson who then doubled their lead four minutes after the break
With fifteen minutes to go, Spartans further extended their lead thanks to Jack Beesley who lifted the ball over the Rovers’ keeper in the net to make it 3-0.
With 10 minutes remaining the prolific Keith McLeod blasted home his 26th in 26 appearances this season to make the score 4-0.
After the game Anderson told the club website: “It was a good team performance. The first half was a bit flat from us, however we stepped up a gear in the second half and we had plenty chances to score more goals. It’s obviously a good result for Welfare and not one the Uni side were after however we just need to concentrate on ourselves and keep winning. We are playing well at the moment and we’ll continue to work hard to maintain our momentum as the season builds up to the business end of proceedings.”
Elsewhere
East Kilbride 2-3 Gala Fairydean Rovers
Edinburgh City 4-1 Preston Athletic
Whitehill Welfare 1-0 University of Stirling
Scottish Sun Lowland League Cup, Groupstage, Section A
Selkirk 1-3 Vale of Leithen
Scottish Sun Lowland League Cup, Groupstage, Section C
Gretna 2008 4-0 Dalbeattie Star
Central Taxis East of Scotland League Premier Division
Coldstream 0-1 Heriot-Watt University
Craigroyston 2-1 Leith Athletic
Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale 2-1 Tynecastle
Spartans 0-2 Civil Service Strollers
Central Taxis First Division
Berwick Rangers Reserves 2-0 Peebles Rovers
Eyemouth United 0-1 Kelso United
Hibernian 8-0 Burntisland Shipyard
Ormiston 0-5 Easthouses Lily
East of Scotland Qualifying League, Section B
Hawick Royal Albert 2-1 Duns
Stirling University P-P Edinburgh University
Women’s Football
Hibs’ Ladies started the season with an emphatic 12-0 win over Hutchison Vale at Albyn Park to progress to the 2nd round of the League Cup
Ice Hockey by John Preece
Clan timeously ended a 4-game losing run by edging Capitals by the odd goal in three to remain very much in the hunt in the race to finish runner s up to Belfast in the final league standings.
A second period strike by Matt Towe was enough to secure the points as the home side survived a nervous finish with Capitals always liable to sneak a goal in their forays around the Clan net. The home side dominated possession throughout but only took a single advantage after the opening period with skipper Ash Goldie on target at 12.02.
Capitals shocked the large home crowd by tying the game inside the opening minute of period two with Curtis Leinweber being credited with the final touch only 29 seconds in but Clan hit the front again at 26.23 thanks to Towe’s strike and with neither side able to add to their tally it was Ryan Finnerty’s side who claimed the points and a 2-1 confidence boost going into the rematch between the sides in Edinburgh on Sunday. (Report courtesy of the EIHL’s R&J Stats)
In the aforementioned rematch, Braehead Clan looked decidedly the lesser of the two teams at Murrayfield. Edinburgh scored their first goal in the first period and maintained their lead through the goal-less second. Another in the third period gave the home side a 2-0 lead which they held until the end, in spite of both sides being awarded, and missing, a penalty.
(Full report is available elsewhere in the ‘Sports’ pages).
Boxing
South Queensferry’s Paul Appleby lost narrowly to Scot Cardle after being stopped in the final round on the Ricky Burns’ card at the SSEC in Glasgow on Saturday evening.
Both fighters put in a brave performance and with the scores level, Cardle caught Appleby with a strong punch midway through the round, knocking him down. Appleby sprung to his feet and was visibly angry when the referee stopped the bout.
Afterwards he said: “O thought I could have continued. It was the last round. It was a heavy knockdown but I’m OK. I am fit and sprung back up. Of I wasn’t fit I wouldn’t have been able to get up from a shot like that.”
Speedway courtesy of the Edinburgh Scotwaste Monarchs website
Despite two other major sporting events taking place in Edinburgh on Friday evening there was a fine turn out for the away video show at the Thomas Morton Hall.
It is when you see a show like this that you realise what great racing the Scotwaste Monarchs produced last season. Craig Cook was involved in much of it but all the team had their moments and those moments were all very special.
Max Fricke was in attendance, looking bronzed from his trip home during the winter and, he thought, two inches taller also. He can’t wait to get started and although he has been offered opportunities in Denmark and Poland he confirmed that the Scotwaste Monarchs would be his priority.
It was confirmed that supporters are invited to Armadale Stadium on Saturday 22nd March from 5.00pm to 7.00pm to see the team in pre-season practice.
The next event in the calendar is the air fence fund raiser, “A brief History of speedway racing in Edinburgh” and that is less than two weeks away at Meggetland on 14th March. A few tickets are still available.
Basketball
Dunfermline Reign SM 93-76 Stirling Knights SM
Glasgow Rocks SM 79-72 Boroughmuir Blaze SM
St Mirren West College Scotland SM 106-57 Glasgow Storm
Clark Eriksson Fury SM 61-54 City of Edinburgh Kings SM
Polonia Phoenix SW 55-33 Clark Eriksson Fury SW
Polonia Phoenix SW 32-71 City of Edinburgh Kool Kats SW
St Mirren West College Scotland SW 53-60 Lady Rocks SW
Photos by John Preece
http://www.photoboxgallery.com/jlp-photography
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
