Oldcorn of Kings Acre shows his class down in the Borders

Oct 22 2009 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

THE East of Scotland Alliance lads had a good day for their trip to the Borders to take on the long and demanding Roxburghe course last week.

And class came to the fore in the shape of former European Tour regular Andy Oldcorn of Kings Acre.

The big man’s superb 68 scratch won him the Jordan Trophy by three shots from Scott Young of Turnhouse.

There was a considerable West Lothian presence in the prize list, too. Alan Reid, pro at the West Lothian club, was third with a 73 while Pumpherston’s Richard Fyvie and Houston Driving Range’s Andy Marshall shared fourth spot on the very respectable 75 mark.

On the handicap side of things there was a runaway victory for Cardrona’s David McKean.

His net 69 was no fewer than five ahead of a five-man pile-up in joint second which included two local boys.

Andy McLennan of Deer Park took the joint runners-up spot along with West Lothian’s Kenneth Reid.

As far as the Orders of Merit go at this early stage, leader of the scratch one is amateur Colin Fraser from Peebles, though he is hotly pursued by big Andy Marshall in second spot; while Deer Park’s Andy Rothney and Stuart Callan, the Bathgate pro, are in fifth and sixth place respectively.

Fraser also leads the handicap one and here Andy Rothney is also in fifth place with McLennan in 10th.

The lads were due at Royal Musselburgh this week and I’ll have that result next time.

Several local clubs have been enjoying the decent weather lately as they round up their seasons.

Scoring was good at Uphall in their closing day for the Bill Beveridge Trophy on Sunday. Winner was six-handicap Mark Proudfoot whose 63 net just pipped local legend Joe McManus (3) and Barrie Storrar (12) by a single shot.

Over at Pumpherston there were quite a number of stableford points amassed in their Closing Day Tankard.

The result was as follows: JG Bishop 41, J Mills 40, A Dryden 39, S Cook 39 and B Miller 39.

Greenburn had an October Medal recently before rounding off the season on Sunday with their Final Day Shield.

Five-handicap Shaun Kane prevailed in the former with a fine 65 net, one better than joint runners-up Steven McIIlduff (18) and Tom Smillie (5), while it was the grand 63 of Peter Ayre (14) which won by a shot on Sunday from James McCairn (19).

Dundas Parks has had its Weir Cup with Malcolm McKellar the man they are all talking about at the head of matters. His winning score was 72-5=67, three better than runner-up Osman Ersoy (7).