The annual match between CAI (Nathaniel Healy, Jane Morrison, Sandy Greig, Daniel Bennett, Alan Looney and Gerard Osborne Burke) and SCA (John Surgenor, Chris Martin, Janice Duguid, David Houston, Brian Durward and Bob Darling) was played at the Meadows Club in central Edinburgh last weekend under glorious sunshine and the Irish emerged victorious in a closely fought contest where they were always in the lead.

The format is to have three doubles games on each morning, two rounds of singles on Saturday afternoon and one round of singles on Sunday afternoon. Many of the games were tight affairs, being won on time. The Irish won the opening doubles games 2-1 and never relinquished that lead (unlike last year, when the Scots had won Sunday's doubles 3-0 to get them selves back to drawing the match).

After  the 2 rounds of singles (with one TP) we were in front 10-5 at close of play on Saturday.

We were royally entertained , both at the club with a delicious buffet lunch prepared by Charlotte and at a local wine bar for dinner.

On Sunday morning we again won the doubles 2-1 but in the afternoon the weekend began to take its toll and at one stage it looked as though the Scots might win all of the final round. However, both Sandy and Gerard won their games to get us over the line.

The only sad feature of the match was the news that broke on Friday of the finding of Fergus McInnes' body. Fergus, who was a regular on the SCA team for many years, disappeared in Switzerland  in 2014, having set out to walk from a local station to the hotel where he was to attend a conference. His remains were found in a ravine near a path through the woods last week. This event is the poorer without him.

RESULTS

Round 1:-

Morrison and Osborne Burke lost to Surgenor and Houston +3T,

Healy and Looney beat Martin and Darling +5

Greig and Bennett beat Duguid and Durward +9T.

Round 2:-

Healy beat Surgenor +14TP

Martin beat Greig +7T

Morrison beat Duguid +26

Osborne Burke lost to Houston +8T

Bennett beat Durward +4T

c beat Looney +20.

Round 3:-

Greig beat Surgenor +8T

Morrison lost to Martin +112T

Healy beat Duguid +20

Looney beat Houston +1T

Osborne Burke beat Durward +18

Bennett beat Darling +7T.

Round 4:-

Morrison and Osborne Burke beat Martin and Darling +23

Healy and Looney beat Duguid and Durward +10T

Bennet and Greig lost to Surgenor and Houston +6T

Round 5:-

Morrison lost to Surgenor +12

Healy lost to Martin +3T

Bennett lost to Houston +10 (Short game)

Greig beat Duguid +12T

Osborne Burke beat Darling +8

Looney lost to Durward +3T.