Kelso get off to winning start in Border League at Peebles

That puts the Poynder Park outfit, beaten finalists last time round, in pole position in the league’s four-strong pool B with five points.

Gala and Melrose are yet to play and haven’t got any fixture dates set thus far.

Hawick and Selkirk’s Tennent’s Premiership opener served as a double-header, their 20-20 draw at the former’s Mansfield Park home ground opening their pool A accounts with two points apiece.

Three-strong pool A’s standings are now set to be decided in a matter of days by two further premiership double-headers – Jed-Forest hosting Hawick at Riverside Park this Saturday and Selkirk welcoming the Jedburgh side to Philiphaugh a week later, September 10, with both those games kicking off at 3pm.

Kelso’s tries at the Gytes at the weekend were scored by Andy Tait, Frankie Robson, Dwain Patterson and Angus Roberts, with Patterson converting three and Murray Hastie one.

Patterson was delighted to help the Tennent’s National League Division 1 side to a four-try victory against their second division opponents, telling Borders Rugby TV afterwards: “It was good. It was a wee bit scrappy at times but it’s a bonus-point win and clean sheet.

“It was good to get a proper run about after a couple of friendlies and it was a competitive game.

“There’s still a lot to work on but we’re looking forward to next week now.

“We’re definitely looking to kick on from now. Obviously last season was better than previous years but it was still disappointing in the end.”

Peebles second-row Roddy Guiney wasn’t too disheartened by Saturday’s defeat, insisting there are plenty of positives to be drawn from it for the season ahead.

“There were definitely a lot of positives to take from it,” he said.

“We were good with the ball in hand, but we just didn’t really have enough of it.

“A couple of little handling errors let us down out wide, meaning we didn’t get any points on the board, but apart from that, we were good up front against a big Kelso side.

“We’ll work on what we were poor on there today for next wee​​​​​​​k.”