PODIUM FINISH FOR SHELDON
SHELDON GRABS PODIUM FINISH
Hamilton’s Grant Sheldon achieved his first major podium finish in six years by finishing third at the Karlovy Vary World Cup on Sunday.
By the end of the first lap Sheldon took the race on, with Great Britain team-mate Sam Dickinson going with him, and France’s Raphael Montoya building up a head of steam further back.
Sheldon pressed on despite the heat in the Czech Republic, only to have the door slammed on him with a lap to go, as Montoya took to the front.
Dickinson dug in deep and made his move early in the final lap to finish first, with Montoya second and Sheldon third.
That was Sheldon’s first medal at that level since 2013, and he said on his Instagram page: “Been a long time since I’ve been at the front of a race like this!
“Getting on the podium meant a lot – may have shed a small tear.
“It was a hard, honest triathlon course – the reason I got into the sport – and I worked bloody hard to make it work.
“Thanks to everyone behind me, and well done to everyone getting round, and of course Sam Dickinson and Raphael Montoya for beating me to the line.”
UDDY CLINCH CRICKET LEAGUE
Tunnock’s Uddingston Cricket Club on Saturday clinched the Western District Cricket Union Premier League with a convincing 85-run win at Clydesdale.
Villagers skipper Bryan Clarke paid tribute to Aamir Gul and Gavin Bradley after their match-winning knocks helped to clinch the trophy.
Uddingston clocked up 234 for 5 in 50 overs, while Clydesdale were all out for 148 in 36.
The Villagers topped the table with 284 points from 12 matches, ahead of Mccrea FS West of Scotland, who have played a game more.
After three of their top order went cheaply, Gul and Bradley put together a vital partnership of more than 100 runs that effectively sealed the match.
“Aamir and Gavin were excellent,” said Clarke.
“The wicket was doing a lot early on, but they showed their experience and battled through it.
“Gavin played the role of the aggressor, while Aamir was able to frustrate the bowlers as he often does.”
Abdul Sabri dismissed Clydesdale opener Angus Gul in the second over, and the Titwood side, who were struggling against the pace of Uddingston’s bowlers, were soon two down after Niall Alexander took his first scalp.
With Scotland international Richard Berrington at the crease, Clydesdale still had a chance of victory, but he wasn’t able to get support at the other end.
Berrington was caught by Harry Singh while trying to reverse sweep an Anwar Hafeez delivery, and the game was all but over.
Gavin Main and Aamir Gul mopped up Clydesdale’s tail, sealing the win and the title for Uddingston.
“It was a career highlight for me,” said Clarke.
“The team have trained hard all year. The pleasing thing for me is that we all contributed at some point during the season.”
The season isn’t quite over yet for Uddingston, with a return to Titwood to play Forfarshire, who won the Eastern League. The winner will be crowned Scottish Club champions.
ANGLING ANGLE BY TOM MCGREGOR
Anglers have been faced with several problems this summer.
Two bridges have been closed to traffic. The Mauldslie Bridge, near Rosebank, has been a valuable access point to the Clyde Walkway, and the river, for both walkers and anglers – but it has been closed to allow essential repairs to be carried out, which will take nearly a year.
Near Carstairs, the Pettinain Road Bridge has also been blocked, while it is repaired.
As if that is not enough, several roads became temporarily out of use, due to severe flooding.
After last year’s summer drought, rain should have been a blessing, but too much rain was certainly not welcome.
With the rain came a drop in the air temperature, and this persuaded many insects to delay their emergence from the river.
Mayflies and caddisflies are expected to leave the river to mate, or to return to it in order to deposit their eggs in the late evening, but this was not happening.
For a time, the only way to tempt a trout was to use a weighted nymph, which would sink right to the bottom of the river, where the fish were feeding.
For those anglers who much prefer to fish with a dry fly, this was not a happy time.
Some consolation could be taken from their being able to land as many as a dozen trout in a day, but the best of these fish was seldom more than a pound in weight.
The better trout were missing from the catches.
It was good to hear that grayling were starting to show up in catches.
In recent year, grayling were frequently caught throughout the summer, but this year nobody was catching them, probably because of the unsettled weather conditions.
Towards the middle of August, cooler weather might have been more to the liking of the ‘Lady of the Stream’. Their presence now bodes well for the coming winter. They usually come to their best after the first frosts of November.
Salmon have been passing through Glasgow on practically every tide.
They are drawn into the river by the smell of fresh water.
Two things make salmon excited enough to snatch at anything approaching them.
One of these is a sudden rise in the water level before it becomes too discoloured. The other is a drop in the water level, just as it is beginning to clear.
There has been a succession of rises and falls during the last month.
Nobody is saying that salmon fishing has been easy, but two trout anglers decided to try their luck with the ‘King of Fish’, and remarkably both managed to land a small salmon.
They had taken out a day permit, but have since invested in a season permit, because they are determined to return to the river quite a few times before the end of October.
More experienced anglers have been catching a lot of salmon.
Some of them used bunches of worms, when the water was discoloured. They also resorted to the use of heavier lures when the river was running too high for their preferred technique of fly fishing.
Summer salmon tend to be on the small side, and the size of fish being caught are neither a surprise nor a disappointment.
September should see larger specimens being caught, if there continues to be enough rain to persuade waiting fish to come up from the estuary.
In October, the really big fish will often run even if there has been no rain.
We will not know how many salmon have been caught until the anglers send in their catch return forms early in November.
Other rivers can access the records of fish caught on a daily basis. Many of these rivers are reporting that this year catches have been a great improvement on recent seasons. This could be due to the cool conditions and the large amount of rain falling throughout the summer.
It has also been suggested that the removal of the static nets along the English coast might have allowed a great many more salmon to survive and reach Scottish rivers than was anticipated.
It will be several years before the effects of a successful spawning season this winter will be seen on the rivers, in terms of an increase in returning salmon.
BLACKHAWKS MISS OUT
Clyde Valley Blackhawks lost 21-6 in their first ever British American Football Association National Leagues (BAFANL) play-off semi-final against Halton Spartans in Widnes.
The game, held at Widnes Vikings’ stadium, would propel the winner into the Britbowl final, with a chance of securing promotion to Division 1.
Unfortunately, an injury-hit Lanarkshire side fell short.
With a tense game tied at 0-0, the Blackhawks offence completed a long pass down the right side to wide-receiver Robbie Mccrory, which set them up in a great position to capitalise and take the lead.
Their running backs failed to punch the ball into the end zone from the 10-yard line, in the 4th down and quarterback Gary Orr’s pass was dropped in the end zone, which turned the ball over.
Just before the half, Halton punished the Blackhawks and, after a long drive, completed passes to their wide-receivers and long runs from their running backs saw them take a 7-0 lead.
Blackhawks tried to respond, but a pass was intercepted by Halton and ran back to Clyde Valley’s five-yard line, and they increased their lead to 14-0.
A tiring side then fell to another score, as Halton stretched their lead to 21-0.
With around four minutes left in the game, the Blackhawks offence started driving down the field with Orr scrambling for first downs and eventually running in for a touchdown. A failed twopoint conversion kept the score at 21-6, which is how it ended.
A Blackhawks spokesperson said: “It was an encouraging year for the Blackhawks, securing their own division, winning their first play-off game and reaching their first ever semi-final.
“Clyde Valley will be looking to build on the success they had and look to strengthen, going into next year.”
If you would like to play for Clyde Valley Blackhawks you can find them on Facebook or @Cvblackhawks on Twitter.
LAW’S SCOTTISH NATIONAL SUCCESS
Law and District Amateur Athletics Club took an impressive six gold medals from the Scottish National Championships at Grangemouth.
In total, the club took 10 medals from the event they put so much hard work into every year.
As well as medal success, Law and District AAC also recorded several personal best performances.
Gold medals went to Jim Gillon in V50 400m, Graeme Ferguson in V40 shot put, Dawn Russell in under-17 javelin, Oscar Logan in under-15 800m, Leah Keisler in under-20 400m hurdles and Margaret Newell in ambulant 200m.
Silver was won by Leah Keisler in under-17 300m hurdles, while bronze went to Dawn Russell in under-17 hammer, Shannon Gough in under-17 discus and Calvin Simpson in under-15 shot put.
Vivian Duruh was fifth in under-17 discus and shot put, Craig Cherrie finished sixth in under-15 pole vault and Isaac Burnet-green was eight in under-15 shot put and ninth in javelin.
RUGBY CLUB EGM NOTICE
Hamilton Rugby Club will hold an Extraordinary General Meeting in the John Allan Suite at Laigh Bent on Monday, September 16, at 7.30pm.
All voting members are invited to attend and discuss and approve the 2018 accounts.
Voting members are Ordinary, Honorary and Life members.
The agenda for the meeting is posted in the clubhouse.