Lothians captain regrets demise of present

Scottish area team qualifying set-up

FROM THE EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS WEBSITE
By MARTIN DEMPSTER
Keith Nicholson, the Lothians captain, admits he'll be feeling a tinge of sadness when he leads his players into battle against Perth & Kinross in the Scottish Area Team Championship at Crieff tomorrow.
The match is meaningless for Lothians, the record 12-times winners of the event having already lost to Angus and Lanarkshire.
But even more of a sore point for Haddington's current Lothians champion is the fact that this will be the last match under the current format of a round-robin stage of three games followed by the semi-finals and final over one weekend at the end of the season.
Next year, the event is being given a radical shake-up, with the lure of World Ranking points likely to ensure the participation of the country's top amateurs.
It will take place over one weekend in May with six-man teams playing two stroke-play rounds over two different courses on the Saturday. The top four teams will progress to the semi-finals on Sunday morning. The format for those will be one foursome and four singles.
The Scottish Golf Union believes it will be a winning format all round but Nicholson, pictured above by Cal Carson Golf Agency, is not so sure and is particularly concerned about the fact that it is being played so early in the season.
He said: "Players hoping to make an impact in a bid to get into their Area teams are certainly going to have to do that pretty quickly due to the new event being held in May.
"If it was being held later in the season, it would give team captains like myself the chance to look at players in friendlies before throwing them in at the deep end.
"In effect, county golf in Scotland is going to be finished by May and I, for one, think that is disappointing because playing for the Lothians was the highlight of the season for me."
SUNDAY'S MATCHES
GROUP A
Borders v Ayrshire at Hawick
North-east v Stirlingshire at Murcar Links
GROUP B
Lanarkshire v Angus at Kirkhill
Perth & Kinross v Lothians at Crieff.
GROUP C
Argyll & Bute v Fife at Machrihanish
Renfrewshire v Clackmannanshire at Erskine.
GROUP D
Dunbartonshire v Glasgow at Cardross.
North v South at Nairn.