Rugby by John Preece
Three first half tries for Glasgow gave them a lead that Edinburgh got near but couldn’t manage to get past in the second leg of the 1872 Cup at Scotstoun. 11-0 up after 20 minutes, Glasgow’s normally strong defence came in for some severe punishment and Willem Nel drove over in the corner for Edinburgh’s first try. They crossed the line again, but the try was disallowed. However, Laidlaw kicked the penalty to take the score t0 11-10. Glasgow then scored their second try, before another Laidlaw penalty to make it 16-13. The hosts then scored their third try just on the break to leave the field 23-13 ahead.
Glasgow scored their fourth try just after the break during a second yellow card period for Edinburgh. The visitors then scored another try, through Matt Scott to bring the game to 30-20, but Glasgow sealed the win with another from Rob Harley to bring up the 37 points. Edinburgh weren’t quite finished and two late tries, from Tomas Leonardi and – from half way – a first comeback try from Tim Visser. But, it wasn’t quite enough and Glasgow took the win 37-34 and the Cup, and, as a result, went to second place in the table.
Football
SPFL
Hearts won the last Edinburgh derby of the season thanks to two Callum Paterson headers in the first half. Jordon Forster pulled one back for Hibs in the second half but Gary Locke’s men held on to secure the three points.
After the game Locke praised double Paterson. He said: “Callum’s been great. He’s played all over the place. Coming through the youth system, he played every position possible, apart from goalkeeper. Callum, who sees his long-term future at right-back, has done very well there and we’re delighted that he got two goals for us.
“We played well first half. Second half, Hibs were the better side.
“We’ve showed a different side to our character. In the last month, we’ve won games and played really well. Today was more about character and digging in and I think you saw that in abundance.
“Hibs have got good players, they’ve got a good management team. Everybody’s writing them off. I knew that they would make it difficult for us.
“They did make the game physical. I’m delighted that our players have stood up to that because maybe earlier in the season that wouldn’t have been the case.
“You can definitely see that we’re physically better and fitter and the younger lads are handling themselves a lot better now.”
Scottish Sun Lowland League
Dalbeattie Star 4-0 Vale of Leithen
Selkirk 3-6 Whitehill Welfare
The King Cup, Third Round
Gretna 2008 2-0 Easthouses Lily
Central Taxis East of Scotland League Cup, Preliminary Round
Berwick Rangers EOS 9-1 Hawick Royal Albert
Central Taxis East of Scotland League, Premier Division
Stirling University EOS 2-1 Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale
Central Taxis East of Scotland League Cup, First Round
Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale P-P Leith Athletic
Craigroyston 3-3 Edinburgh University (Craigroyston won 5-4 on penalties)
Hibernian EOS 3-1 Berwick Rangers EOS
Stirling University EOS P-P Spartans EOS
Central Taxis East of Scotland League, First Division
Kelso United 1-2 Burntisland Shipyard
Peebles Rovers 4-0 Ormiston
King Cup, Third Round
Gretna 2008 2-0 Easthouses Lily
Women’s Football
Rangers 3-0 Hibernian
Spartans 16-0 Forfar Farmington
Manager Debbi McCulloch, who was delighted with her team’s performance and told the club website: “It was an extremely professional performance today by the players however I don’t particularly like winning by those size of margins. That said, it was good to see six players grab goals and all from open play.
“We switched off celebrating our opening goal and we have to thank Rachel for pulling off a great save from the penalty and keeping a clean sheet and from there we controlled the game and got everything we deserved from it.”
Speedway
The bad weather at the Armadale track meant the postponement of the visit from Sheffield Tigers this weekend.
No date has been fixed for the rearranged fixture.
The Monarchs fans had been looking forward to seeing new signings Joe Screen and Doug Wyer.
Hockey by John Preece
The Glasgow National Hockey Centre is playing host to two tournaments this week, the FIH 4-Nations for the men and the 8-Nations Champions Challenge for the women.
The men’s tournament started on Friday and full match reports can be viewed in the ‘Sports’ section.
The women’s tournament started on the Sunday and four thrilling matches were played under mostly grey skies, but that didn’t prevent the crowds turning out to see Scotland just loose to Belgium 2-1. In the other three matches, USA beat Spain 3-1, South Africa drew 2-2 with Ireland and South Korea beat India 4-2. A full report will appear in the ‘Sports’ section later on.
Just to outline the dangers of hockey, however… One of the Irish players was carted off when she was struck on the head by a South African stick, a Scottish player was hit on the nose by the ball and – probably the worst incidents – an Indian player was hit on the forehead with the from close range, by a full-blooded strike by one of the Koreans. She went to hospital – eventually – as one of the most pathetic responses to a serious injury was witnessed by all present. Only the Indian team doctor and one of the coaches attended the player – who was lying, screaming, on the pitch – and the first tournament ‘official’ to arrive was the girl to wash the blood off the pitch! It took several minutes to get a stretcher organised and even longer – perhaps 20-25 minutes – for an ambulance to arrive. Luckily – if that’s the right word! – the hit was above her eyes. Any lower and serious damage could have been done to the player’s eyes, nose or jaw/mouth area. One spectator, sitting over 30 metres away, remarked that he thought the ball had hit her stick! The Edinburgh Reporter photographer was less than five…….
So come on Scottish Hockey – SORT IT OUT!
Photo 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.
