Clackmannan boys' championship prizewinners. Centre left is junior boy champion Ryan Blyth (Braehead) with his trophy, and centre right is boys' stroke-play champion Rikky Alexander, also Braehead, with his trophy. The two champions are surrounded by other prizewinners and county boys' convener (in red) Sam Kinnaird.

  ALEXANDER the GREAT CONQUERS TULLIALLAN.

 The day after taking the top handicap prize in the Clackmannan county spring meeting, Braehead’s Rikky Alexander completed a highly successful weekend by taking the 2012 Clackmannan boys' stroke-play championship in difficult course conditions at Tulliallan.

It was a close finish. Rikky led by one shot with one hole to play and a closing par was sufficient to take the title from Alloa’s Brian McAdam, the 2011 county junior boys champion. Rikky scored 79 to Brian’s 80.

Top handicap prize went to Ryan Calder (Braehead) with a net 70, winning on the better inward half form Alloa’s Gregor McEwan.

In the junior boys' event, Ryan Blyth made it a double for Braehead, scoring 85, two shots ahead of Joshua Thatcher (Tillicoultry). Handicap prizes went to Ross Bundy ((Tillicoultry) and Jamie McEwan (Alloa).

Match-play qualifiers were obtained for the championship starting at Alva on Monday. In the junior boys' event for the Anderson Trophy, Jamie McEwan and Joshua Hatcher play off for a second-round match against Jonathan Clark (Tillicoultry) while Ross Bundy plays Ryan Blyth, also in the second round.

In the senior boys' event for the Ponton Shield, the matches are as follows

G McEwan v J Struthers,  G Murray v R Calder,  R Alexander v B McAdam and S Beattie v C Reid.

 CLACKMANNAN COUNTY SPRING MEETING WELL SUPPORTED

A very good entry of 200 competitors contested the Clackmannan county spring meetings in showery conditions. At Braehead (Division 1), Braehead junior Rikky Alexander took the top handicap prize with a 67 from J Maley, while best scratch scores came from home players Allan Watson (70) and David Finlayson (71). The CSS was 70 (Home players) and 72 (Visitors)

In the Division 2 event at Tulliallan, E Fairway, S Harris and S Young led the way with net 69’s. The CSS was 71. Full results will be published next week

CLACKMANNAN GOLFERS INTO BATTLE AT CRAIL

County team captain Jamie Aitken (Alloa) caused a few raised eyebrows at the weekend with an outstanding performance in the Battle Trophy, a 72 hole Scottish Golf Union Order of Merit event. Opening with a four-under-par 68, which led a field containing all the top Scottish golfers, he followed up with a 76 to slip back to 8^th position. 

Any doubters were proved wrong when he repeated the 68 in round 3, and then finished with a 75 to finish sixth.

Quite clearly Jamie has a golf game to compete with the top Scottish golfers and must be looking forward to the rest of the season - probably also back into the World Amateur Golf Rankings  Well done, Jamie!

It was a good tournament for the Wee County contingent - probably the best for some time. Alva’s Lawrence Allan opened with two sub-par rounds, and Dollar’s Scott Borrowman kept up with the other two. All three easily made the cut and continued into the top 15 placings in the competition

 FINAL PLACINGS

(out of 40 competitors)

 287 Jamie Aitken (Alloa) 68 76 68 75 (6th)

 292 Lawrence Allan (Alva) 71 70 76 75 (11^th)

 Scott Borrowman (Dollar) 73,75,72,73 (13th)

These performances hopefully will inspire the Clackmannan team when they take on Perth and Kinross in the final match of the Provan Salver over Dollar on Sunday.

Selected for Clackmannan in this, the last match are:

Lawrence Allan, Steve McIvor, Michael Robertson (all Alva), Scott Borrowman, Darren Hulston  (both Dollar),  Allan Watson, Ross Benvie, Scott Moffat (all Braehead).

THIS WEEK’S WEE COUNTY GOLF SCENE

The golf season gathers pace in the Wee County. There is a Carlsberg Open at Tillicoultry (28^th), the Buick Trophy at Alloa (29^th) and a Mixed Open at Braehead (29^th).   The Provan Salver (Clackmannan v Perth and Kinross) tie is at Dollar on the 29th

Opening ties in the County Fours at Braehead take place next week (Alva v Alloa;  Braehead v Tillicoultry) and the Boys Match play is at Alva and Tillicoultry.

Entry sheets are available for the County Summer meeting to be held on the 12^th and 13^th May - a good bit earlier than usual due to fixtures difficulties.

FINALLY: FUN WITH CYBER GOLF

Five out of the six Clackmannan County Golf Clubs are signed up to “How did I do," a web site which collates golfers' scores form competitions and analyses them.  Its website contains a wealth of information for the golfers who have signed up. There are charts, graphs and statistics galore, quite enough to keep the most avid golfer happy. 

With a new initiative - the ”Titleist Order of Merit” - they have taken all this a bit further , and produced a ranking system which compares all golfers who have signed up. And it’s free.

The ranking system started on the 31^st March, and runs for six months. Already nationally over 19,000 golfers have signed up. Best local golfer last week was Ken Christie from Dollar at position 309 but that changes fairly rapidly. 

Running parallel to that is the Footjoy Club order of merit. That requires a minimum of 40 golfers from their golf club to sign up.  It all should encourage competition.