Ratho Park's Ciaran Paterson claims Lothians Boys' title

Ratho Park's Ciaran Paterson is the new Lothians Boys' champion after winning a twice postponed event at the Braids.

The two-handicapper carded a 70 for a one-shot success in a tournament supported by both Edinburgh Leisure and the Stephen Gallacher Foundation.

Fog forced postponements in both May and August, leaving this year’s event to be decided by one round of stroke-play as the match-play phase was scrapped.

Kilspindie’s Aaron Hall finished second, with Fergus Brown (Gullane) third on 73 out of just 32 players – a big drop on the original field of 77.

While Paterson picked up the coveted Lindsay Trophy, the Stephen Gallacher Under-16 Trophy went to Murrayfield’s Adam Hawthorn with a 75.

Also donated by the Stephen Gallacher Foundation, the under-14 trophy was won by Brown, whose 73 was a fine effort given that he had never played the course before.

Meanwhile, Fife and West were the two winners in the opening round of matches in this season’s Lothians and Fife Golf Associations Winter League at Burntisland.

The hosts beat Mid 3-2 while West were impressive 4-1 winners over East.

The winning West team contained no less than five Bathgate players – Ross Callan, Scott McCandless, Graham Bell, Simon Lockhart and Joe Bryce.

The next round of matches – West v Mid and Fife v East – are at Uphall on Sunday.