County golfers will face a real test when they visit the Kingdom of Fife

Nov 27 2008 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

HARBURN, the venue for West Lothian’s match with East Lothian on Sunday, fell victim to Saturday night’s snow and the fixture has had to be pushed back to January of next year, writes Russell Cameron.

But the Mid versus Fife fixture was able to go ahead at Kingsknowe and there was a stunning result for the visitors from the Kingdom.

For the Fife team won by a resounding 7.5 to 2.5 and now go top of the Lothians and Fife Winter League.

This result, however, has brought West Lothian no favours as they bid for the winter league title..

They certainly have the match against the East side in hand, though they trail Fife by a point in the standings.

And West Lothian are due at Elie to face the might of the Fife team week on Sunday and this is certain to be a major test for the county side.

And to make matters even more crucial, West Lothian will be without three key players for the fixture.

Both Stuart Boyle and Tom Blennerhassett are at Scottish Golf Union coaching that day and Allyn Dick has opted out because of his 30th birthday celebrations the night before.

To his credit he had offered to make himself available but the offer was not taken up, understandably, by the selection committee.

Those being considered for the three places, however, are all reliable servants for the county side in the form of Jordan Rhind of Harburn, Robert Carson and David Marshall of Marriott Dalmahoy, Tom Caldwell of Silverknowes and Greenburn Champion Gary Corrigan.

It will be one very tough game but if our lads get anything out of it they will have gone a long way towards winning this winter’s title.

On the other hand, however, if Fife prevail in the clash then they will be very hard to beat in the raxce for the championship flag..