Craigielaw came through an epic final, to eventually see off a serious challenge from Royal Musselburgh, in the WL Cup Final.

Royal suffered from a slightly slow start, to trail quite significantly in three ties at around the half way mark. The reliable Craig Davidson & Ross Colquhoun found themselves 4 up at the turn, and didn’t take their foot off the gas, eventually returning a 7/6 win for Craigielaw at the top of the order. At the other end of the match, Gerry Gilmour & Jonny O’Mara were no less impressive, leading by 2 at the turn, and eventually turning that lead into a 5/4 win for Craigielaw.

But in front of them, Chris Mackie & Chris Ratcliffe returned a point for Royal, when they delivered a 4/3 win over Rodney French & Dean Glass.

The significant move of the match came in tie 2 where Aaron Hall & Brian Fairgrieve for Royal, faced Kenny Glen & Mark Watt for Craigielaw. The Craigielaw pair led by 3 at the turn, but Hall & Fairgrieve kept battling, and steadily chipped away at their opponents’ lead, eventually getting their noses in front for the first time on the sixteenth. They were able to hold on to their lead, and delivered a point for Royal on the home green.

Briefly it seemed as though Royal were in the box seat as they led by 1 hole in the one remaining tie on the course coming off the sixteenth green. But Craigielaw levelled at the seventeenth, and the stage was set for a grandstand finish.

At the eighteenth Royal’s John Hall seemed to have holed his 15 foot putt for par, but the ball lipped out, leaving Craigielaw’s Scott Cunningham with a putt of a similar length for the match. He wasn’t able to hole it either, and the match went into extra holes.

At the first, Craig Johnstone’s approach was solid, and found the heart of the green. Then Mark Reid sent his approach long and right, and Cunningham skinned his pitch some 35 feet past the hole, leaving Royal as nailed on favourites to take the match. But Reid had other ideas, and sent his putt rattling into the cup. Hall still had a 20 footer for the match, but left it agoninsingly in the jaws. On to the second hole and two good drives found the fairway some 165 yards from the hole. It was Craigielaw to play first and Cunningham pushed his approach a little wide of the target, missing the green. Hall followed, with a similar result. From there, Johnstone opted for a pitch and run, but his ball landed on a soft patch and came up some 12 feet short. Reid then chose the aerial route, with more success, stopping his ball some five or six feet past the hole. Hall couldn’t convert his chance, leaving Cunningham to claim the title when he holed his putt.

So thanks go to both teams for laying on a really exciting final, played from start to finish in good spirits. But congratulations must go to Craigielaw for fighting all the way to the end, to add the Cup to a successful league campaign, and making it a Winter ‘Double’ in East Lothian.

Royal Musselburgh 2 Craigielaw 3