Friday, September 17, 2010

NORTHERN COUNTIES CUP

Nairn, Inverness 2, Newmachar, Moray

last four at Royal Dornoch

By ROBIN WILSON
Northern Counties Cup holders Nairn are through to Saturday morning's semi finals of the competition for the sixth year in succession, a position from where they have emerged three times with the cup since 2004, after a dramatic one-hole win over former winners Fortrose and Rosemarkie in the quarter-finals this afternnon.
Nairn now meet the Inverness second team in the first semi-final with Newmachar, the last remaining North-east club facing Moray in the other.
Over a very windy Dornoch links in the morning, the Nairn team brushed aside Tain by 11 holes to meet in the quarter-finals the 2002 and 2006 winners, Ross-shire's Fortrose and Rosemarkie.
It was a closely-fought match going all the way to the final green and only decided by the newly installed Royal Dornoch general manager, Neil Hampton and his partner Robert Smith.
Hampton, who is still linked to Nairn by home club membership, holed a par-saving 20ft putt to halve the final hole and safeguard the one-hole advantage held by first couple Steven MacDonald and Fraser Fotheringham and extend their defence of the cup.
Inverness's second team, John Forbes, Brian Fraser, Jamie Treasurer and David Joel, were gifted a 19th hole play-off win over Murcar Links for the right to meet Nairn this morning. Forbes and Fraser halved the first extra hole but Murcar's second pair, Kyle Nelson and Adrian Styles, both drove out of bounds. Newmachar, whose result against Cruden Bay was inadvertently reversed in yesterday's results, left their third round result in little doubt - a 12-hole advantage over Elgin.
Then the Newmachar second string of John Duff and R Barr, with a four-hole finish, wiped out a two-hole loss by G Simpson and M McKechnie to beat Forres by two holes for their passage into the last four.
As the light was fading the Moray siblings, Kevin and Gary Thomson, along with Malcolm Macleman and Stuart Tatters combined for a five-hole win over a plucky Fortrose and Rosemarkie second team following Moray's earlier win against Deeside in the morning play.
RESULTS
THIRD ROUND
Nairn 1 bt Tain 1 by 11 holes.
Fortrose and Rosemarkie 1 bt Royal Dornoch by 7 holes.
Inverness 2 bt Peterhead by 1 hole.
Murcar Links bt McDonald Ellon 2 by 10 holes.
Newmachar bt Elgin by 12 holes.
Forres bt McDonald Ellon 1 by 7 holes.
Moray 1 bt Deeside by 11 holes.
Fortrose and Rosemarkie 2 bt Thurso by 1 hole.

QUARTER-FINALS
Nairn 1 bt Fortrose and Rosemarkie 1 by 1 hole
(S Macdonald and F Fotheringham 1, M MacDonald and L Reid 0;  N D Hampton and R Smith 0, S Kinnaird and C Gaittens 0).
Inverness 2 bt Murcar Links at 19th
(J Forbes and B Fraser 0, A Bews and I Galbraith 0; J Treasurer and D Joel 0, K Nelson and A Styles 0).
Newmachar bt Forres by 2 holes.
(C Simpson and M McKenchnie 0, G Stuart and J Wright 2; J Duff and R Barr 4, R McKerron and R Proctor 0).
Moray bt Fortrose & Rosemarkie 2 by 5 holes
(K Thomson and M Macleman 2, B Main and K Gaittens 0; G Thomson and S Tatters 3, R Mackay and J Fraser 0).



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