HAMILTON opened their NL1 campaign with a workman-like 31-6 victory over local rivals Dalziel, while the other newcomers to the division, Ellon, did well to win 33-24 at Kilmarnock.
Hamilton's backs have often promised much, but it was expected that the Dalziel pack, coached this season by Dave Cockburn, would dominate in the tight. As it was, the return of two experienced props, Peter Murphy and John Lindsay, gave Hamilton the edge up front, creating the opportunities for five tries. There were try doubles for full back Allan Dodds and Kiwi open-side Ati Olive and one touchdown for scrum half Ben Humphries. Gerry Hawkes converted three of them while Dalziel managed only two of Jamie Duguid penalties.
Despite a number of defensive lapses which Kilmarnock were quick to exploit, Ellon carried too much fire- power for the home side, and tries from Jamie Stewart (2), Alex Hayman, George Humphries and Murray Gilbert gave them a margin more comfortable than the 33-24 scoreline suggests.
Elsewhere in NL1, Greenock edged out their hosts 31-29 at Annan, Ardrossan beat Duns 32-24 and Hillfoots steam-rollered Ross High 64-3.
Highest scorers of the day were NL2 newcomers, Perthshire, who romped to an 11-try, 71-6 win at struggling Trinity Accies. Star man was stand-off Jesse Westerlund who racked up 23 points from three tries and four conversions, but who was also the creator of several other tries. There was a try each for Dave Rankin, Sam Kaleta, Matt Faye, Keir Doe, Adam Pattison, Andy Elder, Gary Coull and Alan Brown, who also kicked four conversions.
Glasgow Accies, also promoted into NL2, started their season well with a 22-14 victory over Langholm.
Morgan had to come back from a 17-5 half-time deficit to overcome a stuffy Allan Glen's side 25-17 in their NL3 contest. In the battle of the other two promoted sides, Hawick YM scraped to a 10-6 home win against Newton Stewart.
Although they recorded a 30-3 win, NL4 new boys, Lenzie are counting the cost of their trip to Orkney. President Gordon Cribbes explained; ''We decided to charter a plane, which all told cost us about (pounds) 6000. It will have to be a one-off; we couldn't afford to do it again.''
Graham Wilson's stoppage-time interception try earned Lenzie a bonus point after earlier touchdowns from Stevie Hardy, Lorne McInnes and Ross McAuley. Donald Brodie kicked two penalties and two conversions.
stuart sutherland
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article