Parkside in a Hurry to win Top Five tie

PARKSIDE booked their place in the second round of the Edinburgh & Leith Top Five Singles Championship for the Ian McFarlane Trophy with a 3-2 home win over Beechwood.

The progress of the home side was more comfortable than the final score suggests with wins for Darren Grant, Robert Donaldson, and Alex Hurry achieved with little danger of them losing.

Grant was quickest off the mark to zip into an astonishing 17-0 lead over the luckless David Cook and it took the home player just 12 ends to clinch a 21-5 victory.

Win number two was chalked up by Donaldson and it was all wrapped up in 15 ends as he doubled his score from eight to 16 with successive counts of four and finished a good 21-6 winner over Andy Wilson.

Hurry looked to be well held at 10-8 up but showed tremendous acceleration with a run of 2, 3, 1, 4, 1, to hit 21 after 17 ends played against Vince Naylor.

John Watt registered for the visitors with a battling 21-19 win over Paul Veitch then Keith Rutherford improved the complexion of the result with a 21-13 win over Willie Watson – but it was all too late.

Whitehouse and Grange also made it through to the second round after winning a tough 3-2 battle at home to Leith.

Robert Wood was first off the mark to give Leith an encouraging start with his 21-12 win over Fraser Milligan in 18 ends.

And it looked bright for the visitors when Peter McCabe put them 2-0 up with his battling 21-18 victory over Dugald McCallum.

The fightback by Whitehouse and Grange started with Steven Kirk, whose 21-17 success over Gavin Ramsay brought hope, then former Tait champion Andrew Sneddon levelled the match at the 21-18 expense of John Ramsay.

With the outcome now well and truly in the melting pot, it was Ross Maguire who emerged as the hero with his 21-16 triumph over Bob Scott.

"It was a good win for us and we retain home advantage for our next match and I believe it is Caledonian following their 3-2 away win over Tipperlinn," said W&G spokesman Steven Kirk.