Santa dips into his sack
The club’s Annual Christmas Lunch attracted a full house of over 100 to Inverleith today to enjoy a traditional Christmas lunch and a visit from Santa. A great time was had by all.
Hopefully most will return on Friday 25th January for the Burns Day celebration, 12 noon for 12.30pm – no booking necessary. Just turn up.
Stewart’s Melville RFC 58 Lasswade 7
Doug Randall crosses for Stew Mel’s second try
The 1st XV finished their pre Christmas National League 2 campaign in freezing cold weather and virtual darkness with probably their best performance of the season scoring nine tries with four converted maintaining third place in the league. Two early scores the second by Doug Randall (above) gave Stew Mel an early 12-0 lead which was pulled to 12-7 after a Lasswade interception. Three more tries with two being converted took the half-time lead to 31-7 but with the prospect of playing against the whipping wind in the second half. Despite facing the wind Stew Mel continued their adventurous brand of possession rugby adding five more tries and a further conversion to make the final score 58-7 – a great way to finish the first part of the season. With the other matches in the league being cancelled StewMel closed the gap to second placed Highland to seven points though with a game more played.
Good too to see sixty guests attending the pre match lunch two weeks on from 120 attending the lunch before the Biggar match.
The season resumes on Saturday 12th January with a match v Preston Lodge away. PL are doing a pre match lunch at Pennypit Park and anyone wanting to attend it should contact Bill McNie. If there is sufficient take up the club will provide transport.
Glasgow Academicals 8 Stewart’s Melville RFC 13
The 1st XV travelled to Glasgow to take on an Accies side who we had previously recorded a win against at Inverleith. The weather conditions were rather different on this occasion and not conducive to a handling game. Stew Mel opened the scoring with penalty and built on this lead with two unconverted tries by Freddie Roddick and Craig Davidson before half-time, 13-0. The second half was a struggle to hold on as Accies clawed their way back into the game with a penalty and a try, 13-8 and that was how it remained to the final whistle. The win and the four points keep us in third place in the league on 48 points but two wins behind second placed Highland (60) and leaders Biggar (64), all from 14 matches. The action returns to Inverleith on Saturday with a home match v Lasswade, 2 pm. After that we have a Christmas break from league play until 12th January.
Rugby: Stewart’s Melville RFC 0 Biggar RFC 31
A clubhouse lunch for 120 former players and guests preceded Saturday’s match against NL2 league leaders Biggar and was thoroughly enjoyed by all with a prize raffle and heads and tails quiz included.
Things did not go quite to plan out on the field thereafter with Biggar opening the scoring with a converted try after only five minutes. Stew Mel had a spell of territorial advantage and a fair share of possession thereafter without breaching Biggar’s strong defence before another converted try put Biggar 14-0 ahead at half-time Five minutes after the break Stew Mel extended the day’s hospitality to our visitors with an unfortunate gifted try, 19-0 down and things looking as bleak as the weather. Two more Biggar tries followed, the first being converted to take the score to 31-0. Further Stew Mel pressure failed to produce any points leaving Biggar in a good place at the top of the league on 59 points, four ahead of Highland on 55 with Stew Mel still in third place but 11 points behind Highland on 44 after thirteen rounds of fixtures. Next week’s match is away to Glasgow Accies at New Anniesland (kick-off 2pm).
Golf: Good weekend on the European Tour for Grant Forrest
Grant Forrest in his second tournament as a full member of the European Tour had weekend rounds of 65 and 68 to finish in a tie for seventh place in the Mauritius Open with a 14 under par total of 274 after opening rounds of 70 and 71 saw him into the weekend with just one shot to spare. Although he never threatened the winning score of 268 he picked up sufficient ranking points (and cash!) to take him into 15th place in the 2018-19 “Race to Dubai” points table. This week he is in Johannesburg for the South African Open. Former Open Champions Ernie Els and Louis Oosthuizen and former US Masters Champion Trevor Immelman as well as the 2018 Scottish Open Champion Brandon Stone are in the field.