Shoulder-to-Shoulder League Archive
Final results for Division 1 in the season 2009-10
Go to Division 2
Latest News
15/03/10: The last gasp proved one too many for Selkirk as they attempted to keep their 100% winning record to the end when they paid their last visit to Pathhead. In league position terms, the actual result mattered not to the visitors, but in terms of pride it did to the home team and they responded well, putting in one of their best scores of the season and beating the Champions by a not insignificant margin. Niall Georgeson for Pathhead was the star of the night, scoring a fine 199. Bill Vaughan was best for Selkirk with 194. The Matchplay points were shared 4-all. Pathhead have done well this season, having won Division 2 last year and now challenging the top team in Div 2 this term. The just need a bit more consistency to be a real force.
One more match to go – Balerno v Heriot’s, where the former will be looking for their first points of the season.
18/03/10: Well, it didn’t happen for them, despite Heriot’s almost handing them the points on a plate. It was a low-scoring match, with both sides producing their second-lowest scores of the season, with visitors Heriot’s just managing to stumble across the line to take the points from a very up and down Balerno team. Top scorer for them was Frank Gifford on 193, and top for Heriot’s was Stewart Mackenzie with 190. It was 4-all in the Matchplay.
That concludes the programme for this season. Selkirk are confirmed winners of Division 1 (also winning the Matchplay competition), with Bill Vaughan of Selkirk just winning the top average award from Niall Georgeson (Pathhead)..
Match results —
League Table —
Click on each team to see its detailed record for the season.
Balerno & Currie Pathhead George Heriot’s FP Selkirk
Click here to see the individual averages for this division (pdf file).
Previous match commentary:
16/10/09: Division 1 kicked off with Balerno & Currie’s visit to the champions Selkirk, and the home team started off the defence of their title with a slightly unconvincing win. Both sides had some uncharacteristically low scoring, but Selkirk ran out winners by six points. Their top scorer was Bill Vaughan with 195, and the visitor’s top performer was Frank Gifford with 194, making his comeback after injury. Selkirk took a whopping 7 points in the Matchplay contest, all of them in close matches.
19/10/09: Selkirk were again in action only three days after their first match, this time against Pathhead, their nearest neighbours in the competition. The points were taken easily, courtesy of one of the home team members having a disastrous score. It would have been a very close match if he had managed to shoot to his potential. Top score for the home team was Niall Georgeson with 193, with Bill Vaughan again the top man for Selkirk with another 195. Pathhead managed three Matchplay points to salvage something from their evening but Selkirk are opening up a big gap in that competition already.
29/10/09: Balerno & Currie hosted Pathhead and their season didn’t get any better as they suffered their second loss this season, albeit by the narrow margin of 4 points. One Pathhead shooter again did not do himself justice, but the other team members rallied enough to pull their team through. Top scorer for the home team was Anne Robertson, with 193, and veteran Jim Hind was top for Pathhead with a steady195. As befits a close match, the Matchplay points were shared 4-all.
02/11/09: Heriot’s opened their programme with a visit from Balerno & Currie and were glad to get out of jail with a narrow win courtesy of the away team’s captain having a horrendous first card. The fact that Balerno won all three other Matchplay matches handsomely speaks for itself. Top scorer for Heriot’s was their captain, Stewart Mackenzie on 195. All his team-mates were below 190. Best for the visitors was again Frank Gifford, with his second successive 194 and his other two team-mates also kept it in single figures. Frank seems to be working well on his return to shooting after being out through injury for some months, and is sitting third in the averages list for this division.
06/11/09: After sneaking a home win against Balerno last week, Heriot’s wheels really came off on their first visit to Selkirk’s cosy little range and lost the match by a street. It didn’t help that the home team put in the best score of the season so far, but the thin air over Soutra on their journey down to the Borders must have gone to their heads as nobody put in a score they would have wished for. Selkirk were all very consistent, with Bill Vaughan topping their list with 196, whereas Chris Watson, the best Heriot’s shooter, only scored 189. The home team convincingly cleaned up all eight Matchplay points for the first whitewash of the season. Heriot’s must improve on this if they want to make any impact in this division.
09/11/09: Pathhead consolidated their second place in the league with a comfortable home win against Balerno & Currie. Although the scoring wasn’t spectacular, all the shooters were fairly consistent, with none of the visitors quite doing enough to trouble their hosts, resulting in Pathhead taking all 8 Matchplay points. The top scorer for Pathhead was Niall Georgeson, with Anne Robertson the best for Balerno on 187.
16/11/09: Heriot’s travelled out to take on Pathhead in the hope of improving their 50% average (one win, one loss), but were disappointed to lose out to the team one ahead of them in the table. It certainly wasn’t a thrashing, but the visitors still need a little more consistency if they are going to make an impact on the league. Top scorer for Pathhead was old-timer Jim Hind on 195, with Chris Watson and Stuart Mackenzie equal top on 191 for the visitors. The Matchplay points were shared 4-all. Pathhead are now equal with Selkirk at the top of the division, but are down on aggregate, and are only one point behind in the Matchplay, but the Borders team have a match in hand.
26/11/09: Heriot’s secured their their second home win against Balerno & Currie, this time by a slightly more convincing margin than the first time. The leaves Balerno firmly anchored at the foot of the table with no points after five matches. All except one of these matches has been away, so when the home matches start coming in they might do better on their own turf. All the Heriot’s shooters shot very steadily, and their top scorer was Charlie Mackenzie with 193. Best for Balerno was Frank Gifford with 195. The Matchplay points were shared 4-all.
03/12/09: Heriot’s shot their best score of the season against their visitors Selkirk (and in the process almost halving their score against them in their previous encounter) but it wasn’t enough to trouble the league leaders who also shot above their average and ran out winners by over a point a man. The Away team captain didn’t get his pairings quite right, and Heriot’s managed to pick up three Matchplay points from what could have been a whitewash. Top scorer for Heriot’s was Stewart Mackenzie with 195, and top for Selkirk was Eric Brown with 196.
07/12/09: Selkirk’s second match in only four days saw them welcoming Pathhead from over the hill. The visitors had high hopes of taking points of the league leaders, but came up short by only three points. They shot the same score as in their previous match (a win against Heriot’s), but the home team did just enough to stay in front, taking a commanding lead in the race for the league title. The top scorer for Selkirk was Bill Vaughan with 196, and best for Pathhead was Niall Georgeson with 195. The visitors’ only consolation was one Matchplay win against Selkirk’s reserve shooter. In such a close overall match they might have been entitled to expect more.
14/12/09: Pathhead will be rueing their 3-point loss to Selkirk last week as they improved on their score in that match by a massive 13 points to record their best score so far this season (and the second-best overall) by beating their hosts Heriot’s, who didn’t have too bad a score themselves. On this form, Pathhead will be challenging league-leaders Selkirk for the title. Niall Georgeson for Pathhead was the top scorer of the night with 197, including the first ‘possible’ of the league programme so far. Top for Heriot’s was Charlie Mackenzie on 195. The Matchplay points were shared, at 4 apiece.
14/01/10: Pathhead braved the icy car park at Balerno & Currie full of confidence after their demolition of Heriot’s in their last match, and were not disappointed as the home team succumbed by almost 20 points. Pathhead have only lost two matches, both crucially to the league leaders Selkirk, so they will need revenge in the two remaining matches between these teams to have any chance of winning the league. Their 15th March match might be a league decider. Top scorer for Balerno was Gavin Walker on 191, but both Niall Georgeson and Jim Hind scored fine 197s for the visitors. Gavin scored his side’s only Matchplay points, as he was up against Pathhead’s lowest scorer (which was the only match he could have won).
15/01/10: Selkirk kept Heriot’s firmly in third place in the league with an emphatic home win against their city rivals. The Borderers put in the best team score of the season and sent a message to challengers Pathhead that they will not relinquish their title easily. Heriot’s have been scoring decently and consistently in the mid 30’s in their last few matches, but they’ve only won one of them. Top scorer for Selkirk was Bill Vaughan with 198, while Charlie Mackenzie topped the visitors’ list with 196. Charlie also scored his team’s only Matchplay points.
18/01/10: Pathhead took a huge leap backwards in their challenge for the championship by posting their poorest score since the beginning of November and losing their away match to Heriot’s, who continued their run of consistent scores. Top man for the home team was Stewart Mackenzie this time, with 193, while best for Pathhead was Niall Georgeson with 194. Pathhead could only scrape two Matchplay points in a match they would probably rather forget. All credit to Heriot’s for taking full advantage in winning a match they probably would have lost two months ago considering their form at that time.
21/01/10: Balerno & Currie entertained Heriot’s (shooting their third match in the last seven days) in a bottom-of-the table clash which saw the home team remain pointless at the foot of the division. The visitors all shot quite steadily once again and ran out winners by the margin of a point a card per man. Using the term ‘man’ loosely as the top scorer for Balerno was Kristen Tulloch with 193, including the best card of the night – a 99. Top for Heriot’s was Stewart Mackenzie with 194. The Matchplay points were shared 4-all.
04/02/10: Balerno & Currie travelled down to Selkirk to take on the league leaders in the hope of at least a point to break their duck, and although the home team tried to help them out in one respect by posting their poorest total so far, it was not enough for Balerno & Currie to take advantage of and they went down once again. The only consolation was one Matchplay point garnered by their top scorer Frank Gifford, on 192. Taking over from Bill Vaughan as Selkirk’s top man this time was Ian Burton, with 194. Selkirk need to get back on form if they want to keep Pathhead at bay, but their score in this match must give Pathhead a bit of hope. The next match is between these two, and it will be crucial in the race to the title. It’s a must-win tie for both sides.
15/02/10: A crunch match awaited Pathhead as they travelled down to take on league-leaders Selkirk. A win would keep them in the title-race, and a loss would deal a heavy blow to their hopes. A typical ‘four-pointer’ in the football jargon. Well it turned out to be as close a match as it’s importance deserved, with Selkirk just coming out on top by only two points to maintain their unbeaten record. They can thank their captain Bill Vaughan for shooting the top score of the match (197), and Pathhead’s Dougie Duff having a night he’d probably want to forget. Top scorer for the visitors was Niall Georgeson on 195. In the Matchplay, Pathhead took most of the honours with 6 points with the home team winning only the Vaughan/Duff match.
22/02/10: Another must-win match lay in wait for Pathhead in the form of a visit from Heriot’s. A loss would be unthinkable at this stage of the season, and their shooters rose to the challenge, winning by 6 points against a Heriot’s team which can do better (and indeed have done so in their last six matches). Pathhead shot exactly to their average, and Heriot’s weren’t too far behind theirs, so it was probably a fair result. Top scorer in the match was Pathhead’s Niall Georgeson, with 198, including the first possible scored in the league for over a month. David Aitken was top man for the visitors with 196. Dougie Duff for Pathhead got the prize for the best improvement, going from 89 to 96, while his opponent in the Matchplay, David O’Keefe, scored the same total exactly the opposite way round to tie their match. Georgeson took his side’s only other Matchplay points.
25/02/10: Balerno & Currie’s postponed home match against Selkirk from 22nd October was rearranged to take place as a double-header along with the match originally scheduled for this date. Despite both teams apparently being under the impression that it was one home and one away match for each, it was in fact two home matches for Balerno.
First match: After a cracking start (the first two cards scored were both 100s, one from each team) the visitors from the Borders won the match convincingly by ten points, as the home team, although putting in their best score of the season by some way, were unable to keep up with their visitors. Top scorer for Balerno was Frank Gifford with 197, but that was overshadowed by Bill Vaughan’s 199 for Selkirk. The visitors took the Matchplay points by six to two.
Second match: A very similar story, with Selkirk shooting very steadily and bettering their first score by two points, whereas Balerno dropped theirs by two. The top scorers for each team were again Gifford and Vaughan, this time with 194 and 193 respectively. The Matchplay was done the wrong way round, but as Selkirk won all eight points, it didn’t really matter. These two wins mean that Selkirk are the Champions-elect, as they cannot now be caught by Pathhead.
(Apologies for splitting the dates in the tables – my system can’t cope with two matches on the same day!)
01/03/10: It’s a bit of a dead rubber, now that Selkirk can’t be caught, but Balerno & Currie travelled out to Pathhead to try to salvage something form their so-far winless season. Sadly it was not to be, as the home team confirmed the difference in their league positions by giving their visitors yet another defeat. Balerno just had to repeat one of the scores they got in either of their previous two matches and they would have won, so they can do it. Top scorer for Pathhead was Niall Georgeson with 194, while joint top for Balerno were Gavin Walker and Anne Robertson, both with 191. Frank Gifford secured two Matchplay points for the visitors, which is all they took away from this match.
04/03/10: It was Heriot’s turn to try to prise some points from Selkirk when the city team welcomed the Borderers to town once again. However, the visitors’ class ensured they powered their way to yet another win – eleven from eleven now. With only a visit to Pathhead left for them, can they make it a 100% record? Heriot’s were just too erratic for their visitors, who all shot very steadily. Top scorer for the home team was David Aitken on 195, with Selkirk’s Bill Vaughan top for his team also with 195. These two were paired in the Matchplay soc they shared the points there, but young Daniel Burton, making his first appearance in this competition, lost his ‘youngest versus oldest’ match against veteran Stewart Mackenzie to give Heriot’s three consolation points in the Matchplay.