Spire Healthcare Scottish senior men's stroke-play

 Englishmen Rees and Stones lead the way

 at windy Deeside as Brooks has a 78

Two Englishmen top the leaderboard at the end of the first day of the Spire Healthcare Scottish senior men's open amateur championship at windy Deeside Golf Club, Aberdeen.

And, with defending champion Barry Brooks (Meldrum House), an easy winner last year, languishing around the 52nd position after an eight-over 78 and Borders ace Ian Brotherston (Dumfries and County) and Gordon MacDonald (Glenbervie) non-starters, it already looks odds against a Scot heading the field again on Friday at the end of 54 holes.
Ian Jeen (Scotscraig), third placed on 71, and Banff's Ian Angus (Duff House Royal), fourth on 72, will take a different view and so they should.
Rees, pictured above, a Lancashire-based Englishman with a Welsh-sounding name, posted his excellent four-under-par 66 long before the wind got up to add more than a couple of strokes to the degree of difficulty
Rees bogeyed the second but was one under par (35) by the tutrn, thanks to birdies at the eighth and ninth. He then came whislting home in only 31 shots with birdies at the 14th, 15th and 17th pushing him three strokes clear of the field.
Second-placed Mark Stones (Boyce Hill) had a 69 (35-34).

Jeen, pictured left, dropped shots at the eighth, 11th and 16th but was able to repair some of the damage with birdies at the short 15th and 18th.
Angus dropped shots at the 15th and 18th when he looked set for a par-matching 70 if not better.
The Banff man had bogeyed the first and 12th but cancelled them out with birdies at the eighth and 13th. He finished the day with halves of 36 for a 72.
Brooks had a crippling triple bogey 6 at the short fifth and was nine over par after 12 holes. Birdies at the 15th and 17th suggested the start of a recovery but he bogeyed the 18th for a 78 (42-36), 12 shots off the pace.
The leading 50 players and ties at the end of the second round will go forward to the final 18 holes on Friday.
+Pictures by courtesy of Stephen Ellis.

FIRST-ROUND SCORES
par 70 (36-34)
66 G Rees (Fleetwood)
69 M Stones (Boyce Hill)
71 I Jeen (Scotscraig)
72 I Angus (Duff House Royal), M Fell (Copt Heath)
73 R S Miller (Cochrane Castle), R Partridge (Wildernesse), R Latham (Woodhall Spa), I Attoe (Worplesdon), T Whittaker (Beaconsfield), T McLevy (Blairgowrie), M Temple (USA).
74 R Fox (Royal Lytham), B Humble (Kilspindie), K Evans (Vale of Llangollen), D Wilson (Blairgowrie), D Lane (Goring and Streatley), C Wilson (Banchory), P Jack (Carlistle), D GArdner (Broomieknowe), K Bedborough (Deeside).
75 M Andrew (Hockley), S East (Moortown), B J Bingham (Royal Troon), L Chancellor (Invwerness), C Banks (Stanton on the Wold), M Ready (Old Fold Manor), L Blair (Grangemouth).

OTHER SCOTS' SCORES
76 M Reid (Sonning), L Gordon (Turnhouse), J Aman (Grangemouth), I Gillan (Bishopbriggs), A Harkness (Southerness), P Hardwick (Newbattle), I Taylor (Eyemouth) (T30)_
77 J W Johnston (Royal Aberdeen), G Bell (Downfield) (T40)
78 B Brooks (Meldrum House), B Stewart (Tulliallan), J Fraser (Royal Burgess), D Downie (Kirriemuir), A Laird (Deeside), J Watt (Edzell) (T52)
81 J S Macdonald (Dunfermline), J Emslie (Royal Aberdeen), G H Paterson (Royal Aberdeen) (T93)
82 G McLaggan (Bon Accord), W Skene (Deeside) P Tomisson (Nairn) (T105).
Withdrew: I Brotherston (Dumfries and Co), G MacDonald (Glenbervie).