Sporting digest

Indoor Championships

Galashiels Academy pupil Matt Dougall had a fantastic run to take the silver medal in the 1500m at the Scottish Indoor Athletics Championships at the Emirates Stadium, Glasgow, last weekend.

Running for Edinburgh AC, the 15-year-old immediately went into the lead in the U17 age group, but was caught by the older and more experienced Max Pearson from Tynedale Harriers.

It was a gutsy performance from the Galashiels runner who was suffering from a heavy cold and was unable to reproduce the time he ran two weeks previously on the same track at the Scottish National Indoor Open.

Matt said: “I’d like to thank the Rowan Boland Trust, Border Sport and Leisure Trust and Antonio Catarino, owner of the Monte Cassino Italian restaurant, in Melrose, who have all provided significant financial assistance.”

Dophinton long-jumper Jordan Charters also took silver, after the 20-year-old Sale Harrier was beaten to gold by just one centimetre – Peter Muirhead taking the top spot.

Hawick’s Dylan Ali finished behind Jersey’s Cameron Chalmers to take silver in the 400m race, notching a personal best time of 48.33 along the way.

Another Borders runner-up was Stacey Downie of West Linton, who won silver in the 200m behind Chloe Lambert.

Taking bronze in the 60m race was Berwickshire’s 17-year-old Cameron Tindle, who recorded a new pb of 6.88 seconds. The race was won by World and European champion Richard Kilty of Middlesborough.

Briony Paterson of Innerleithen took bronze in the under-17s triple jump with 10.35m, while Rosie Brown of Berwickshire won a bronze medal in the pole vault.

Finishing fourth in their respective competitions were Henry Clarkson from Selkirk in the triple jump and Faye Nicholson in the long jump.

bowls

Teviotdale beaten

The four-rink gents team representing Teviotdale Indoor Bowling Club were hosts to their West of Scotland Glasgow counterparts, and the home team knew this was going to be a difficult fixture as they were well beaten earlier in the season when they travelled to the away match.

After seven ends the hosts were 29 shots to 22 down, and by the completion of 14 ends the same seven shots separated the sides (54-61). The visitors edged further ahead by the conclusion of 18 ends across the rinks (66-76), but the biggest difference in this contest was over the last three ends as the West rinks added 19 shots to their total to five by the hosts to make the final score 95-71 for the visitors. A disappointing end after a battling performance from the Teviotdale men.

Details: A.Waugh 20, S. O’Donnell 27; B. Anderson 19, D. Hutchinson 22; A. J. Kyle 16, R. Moles 19; M. Hogarth 16, G. Macdougall 27.

The clubrooms at West Stewart Place were full on Saturday evening when the annual Wilton Bowling Club Burns Supper was held. The Nat-ional Bard was well toasted throughout the evening, which ran smoothly under the chairmanship of Michael Notman.

The ‘Chieftain o’ the Puddin Race’ was carried in by David Smart, headed by piper Alan Lindsay, the ‘Address to the Haggis’ was given by Alan Thomson, and Andrew Dickson gave the ‘Selkirk Grace’ after which the company enjoyed a very generous supper prepared by Sheila and Elaine Clyne.

The main toast of the evening, the ‘Immortal Memory of Robert Burns’, was delivered by Alan Brydon and he gave a very passionate, amusing and informative speech, full of interesting facts and delivered in an excellent and clear manner, many in the club thought that this had been one of the best ‘Immortal Memory’ speeches they had heard.

David Scott (Duns) gave a fine rendition of ‘Holy Willie’s Prayer’. This was the first time that David had performed one of the National Bard’s favourite stories in the West Stewart Place clubrooms. Another highlight of the evening came from the same man (sitting on the bar), with an excellent performance of ‘Tam o’ Shanter’, full of feeling and actions.

The five singers were in excellent voice – Sally Thomas, Leona Evans (Duns), Tommy Knox, Jimmy Gibb and Alan Lindsay (Selkirk) kept the company well entertained. To bring the main part of the evening to a close, Stuart Anderson gave a very comprehensive vote of thanks.

After a short break the evening continued with more renditions of songs and poems to make this one of the best Burns Suppers since the first such occasion in 1987.

Football

Tweedbank Thistle

After the success of last year’s Box Soccer football training, Continental Tyres and Ostle’s Tyres have very kindly agreed to sponsor the club for John Colquhoun and his Box Soccer coaches to come down to the Borders four times this year, once per quarter, to give Tweedbank players professional coaching. This is for all age groups, P1 to P7.

The kids who attend will get a goodie bag, first bag will include a mini football and beanie hat. The first session is booked for Sunday, February 28 at 10am.

squash

Galashiels Club

Club night friendlies: J Barrow 2-1 L Molero, D Sharratt 1-1 R Kohler, P Spence 2-1 L Molero, I

Chalmers 2-0 A Dolan-Gillingham, P Spence 2-1 J Barrow, D Sharratt 2-0 J Barrow, P Spence 2-0 R Kohler, A Gill 2-0 A 
Dolan-Gillingham, P Spence 2-1 IChalmers, I Chalmers 2-0 A Dolan-Gillingham, A Gill 2-1 D Sharratt.