FRASER McCLUSKEY and John Clelland were the toast of Royal Burgess and Newbattle respectively as their clubs booked places in the semi-finals of the Applecross Edinburgh Summer League.
In a tight match that was played in a great spirit, McCluskey proved the hero for the Burgess as they won 5½–3½ at home against neighbours Bruntsfield Links.
Zander Culverwell, the 2006 Lothians champions, gave the visitors the perfect start with
a 4 and 3 victory over rising star James Ross in the top match, covering the 15 holes played in an excellent four-under-par.
Alan Anderson and Kevin Cattanach also delivered victories for Bruntsfield Links in the top half of the order but, helped by wins from John Miller, John Yuille, Brian Tait and Ian Taylor, the home side led 4½–3½ with one match still out on the course.
All square with two to play against Ally Ritchie, McCluskey got up and down from a bunker to win the 17th with a par before securing the win in style with an eagle-2 at the last.
In recent years, Royal Burgess have put up a consistently strong showing in this event only to fall short in the final reckoning. They are up against Silverknowes in this weekend's semi-finals at Turnhouse and team manager Richard Hughes will be hoping his side can produce one more giant effort to give themselves a shot at the title.
Silverknowes lost out to Duddingston in the final two years ago and they kept alive their hopes of going one better this time around with a 7–2 home win over Swanston.
While Swanston had done well to reach the knock-out phase, they were always going to find it tough down on the Cramond coast, and so it proved.
In the top match, last year's Scottish champion, John Gallagher, got off to the worst possible start when he took a double-bogey at the opening hole against Tam Caldwell.
However, Gallagher recovered by producing a birdie blitz that swept his experienced opponent away despite the fact Caldwell was two-under for the 16 holes played.
Silverknowes, though, are determined to get back into that final and they had soon earned the five points they needed to go though to the last four. On the night, Paul Heggie, Keith Reilly, Paul Ross, Ian Doig, Graham Robertson and Chris Milligan all won for the home side.
Having been in the same qualifying group for last year's event, this Sunday's clash between Silverknowes and Royal Burgess should certainly be a tasty affair.
In the other semi-final, Newbattle will take on Kingsknowe, the former having booked their berth with a superb 5-4 win at Baberton.
With the Edinburgh Inter-Club crown already in the bag this year, Baberton had high hopes of completing a dream double, but they came up against a Newbattle side who showed amazing spirit.
In another tightly-fought encounter, Stephen Marshall and Paul Ferrier won the top two matches for Baberton, beating Stuart Simpson and Stuart Thorburn respectively.
Scott Stables put Newbattle's first point on the board with a 6 and 5 win over Scott Carmichael, but when a half point from Ron Bradly was followed by a win from Ian Gourlay over David Murray in game No.5, it looked odds on that Baberton were heading through.
However, the Newbattle tail certainly wagged, the fightback being sparked by Malcolm Graham as he beat Sandy McComish 4 and 3. Fraser Jervis, who was one-under for the holes played, beat Dave Beveridge by the same margin, and with John Hunter securing a half against Dougie Waugh it was all down to the anchor match between Clelland and Andy Laurence.
On many occasions in the past, Laurence has been able to deliver the goods for Baberton when the chips have been down. This time, he came up against an inspired opponent in Clelland. Helped by a huge birdie putt at the 16th, he won 2 and 1 to seal what, in some eyes at least, will be a shock victory.
Kingsknowe, bidding to win the title in the club's centenary year, moved a step closer to that dream scenario with a 5-3 home win over Dalmahoy, the defending champions.
Paying the price for failing to top their section in the round-robin phase and thus securing a home tie, Dalmahoy were hit by a late surge by the home side as Kingsknowe secured what team manager Bill Buchan hailed as "a fantastic victory".
In one of the key games in the top of the order, Mike Robson provided conclusive proof that he's back to his best with an excellent 2 and 1 win over David Marshall, one of the most dogged competitors on the Capital circuit.
Mike Foley, who passed a late fitness test to take his place in the team, also won for the home side, as did Greg Richards and Alan Mackay, while Paul Page was one up on Iain Campbell when the match finished.
Celebrating his 19th birthday, Richards was involved in a sensational scrap with Ross McGuire. Three down after 12 holes, Richards looked out of it but fired four 3s over the last four holes to clinch a crucial point.
