Play Better Golf

With Niall McGill

AUCHTERARDER Super 6 Winter League Round 17, February 9 - Section 1 - S Adamson (8) 59, B MacDonald (6) 60, W Innes (7) 62. Section 2 - W Irvine (6) 63bih, C Fordham (10) 63, D Spalding (9) 64bih. Section 3 - G McKay (23) 57, R Rennie (18) 58, B Browne (23) 60. BLAIRGOWRIE Gents Winter League, February 9, Rosemount (CSS 70) - Division 1 - 1st I Ross 41 (5), 2nd A Philp 40 (9). Division 2 - 1st S Bruce 36 (12), 2nd A Walker 36 (9). Gents Winter League, February 10 Division 1 - C A Davidson 36 (10), 2nd A J Robertson 32 (7). DUNKELD AND BIRNAM Ladies 10-hole Winter League results - 1st Gwen Lambie 39, 2nd Marion Ferrie and Irene Moncur 41, 3rd Carol Lambie 43. KING JAMES VI Weekend Winter League R29 (CSS 63) - A Section - D Watt 60, C Hammonds 61, J Davidson 62, A Bruce, D Angus 63, I Russell, I Law, D Robb 64. B Section - N Barlass 63, J Wilson 64. Midweek Winter League R67 (CSS 63) - A Section - M Moyes 55, S Scrim 57, P Shand, D Robertson, J Taylor 60, D Watt, J Sands, I Law, J Davidson, E Gray 61, S Robertson, W Leaver, I Murray, S Adamson 62. B Section - J McBean 61, J Wilson 63, A Lewis 64. Midweek Winter League R68 (CSS 63) - A Section - C Hammonds, G L Smith 59, C Cameron 61, D Cook, J Walker 63, A Cameron, R Macleod 64. MIDLAND GOLFERS’ALLIANCE Results from the competition played at Montrose Links over the 1562 Course on Winter greens. Scratch - 66 Stuart Baker (Crail), 68 Ron Walker (Lundin), Gary Tough (Edzell), 69 Stuart McKendrick (Dunkeld and Birnam), Jordan Brown (Drumoig Golf Centre), 70 Mike Mackenzie (Edzell), Scott Arbuthnott (Arbroath), Alister Duncan (Murrayshall), Keir McNicoll (Carnoustie), 71 Gary Smith (Arbroath), Gordon Mcleod (Monifieth), Steve Craig (Archerfield Links), Gary Pyott (Arbroath Artisan), Keith Bruce (Edzell). Handicap - 61 Stuart Baker (Crail), 63 Harry Grant (Muckhart), 64 Eric Gourlay (Monifieth), Colin Sleight (Murrayshall), 65 Martin Henderson (Muckhart), Scott Arbuthnott (Arbroath), Jim McNicol (Panmure), 66 Gary Smith (Arbroath), Dougie Spaven (Pitlochry), Gary Pyott (Arbroath Artisan), Andrew Johnston (Cupar), Davie Hutchison (Murrayshall), Andy Black (Tulliallan), Alister Duncan (Murrayshall). Team - 53 Jim McNicol (Panmure), Davie Hutchison (Murrayshall), Alister Duncan (Murrayshall), 56bih Richard Brown (Royal Montrose), Eric Gourlay (Monifieth), Stuart Greenshield (Auchterarder), 56bih Stuart Baker (Crail), Kevin Lawor (Crail), Ian Craig (Crail). The latest meeting was held on Wednesday at Charleton Golf Course. PERTH ARTISANS The AGM will be held in the golf club at 7pm on Tuesday, February 26. Perthshire captain Ryan Miller has highlighted the importance of making the North Inch a daunting destination for visiting teams.

Tennent’s National League Division 3 action returns on Saturday with Ardrossan Accies making the trip to Perth for the first competitive fixture in two weeks.

Shire’s home form has been impressive this term and Miller says continuing that will be vital if an upper half finish in the table is to be achieved.

“It has only probably been Gordonians who came here and won fairly easily,” Miller said. “Even in that game we played really well in the first half.

“We’re proud playing here and I think people have seen our home results because we got a decent crowd against Hillhead. That helped us towards the end.

“We need to pick up as many points at home as possible. If you look at the league, every team has won a good percentage of home games but not travelled well.

“It’s a couple of weeks we’ve had a break for so hopefully the guys have had time to heal up and get ready for another tough run of games.

“We got a good win against Haddington then really toughed it out against Hillhead in difficult conditions to get a well-earned and valuable win. Confidence is still high.

“We targeted a certain amount of points in January and fell short by a point, so we can’t complain too much.

“We had a decent January and are now looking to continue that into February towards then pushing to the end of the season.

“I’ve got targets in my head that I like to set so I will be sharing them with the guys at training this week.”

The Eagles are looking for some revenge against Ardrossan after suffering a 45-3 defeat against them in the opening game of the season.

“Ardrossan on Saturday will be a really tough game,” Miller told the Perthshire Advertiser. “They are sitting in fourth in the league.

“We were disappointed when we played them at the beginning of the season because we thought we’d trained really well in pre-season.

“We went down there full of confidence but came back with our tails between our legs a little bit. We’ve got a point to prove on Saturday.

“There’s a buzz of rugby going around and people are asking if you’re playing at the weekend or what results have been.”

Perthshire head coach Alan Clark believes his team are much improved from the one defeated by the Ayrshire men earlier in the campaign.

“It’s good to get a break at this time of year but I don’t think we could have any longer off,” he said. “It’s important to get a run about this Saturday.

“We probably caught ourselves a bit cold down there when we played them in the first game of the season.

“They are a big strong team with a couple of large lads in the backline. They did a bit of a number on us in the set-piece down there.

“That is something we will be concentrating on this week. We’re definitely an improved team.

“At the start of the season we were looking around going ‘not another year like this’ but now we’re sitting sixth in the table.

“We’ve got almost double the points compared to the end of last season already and we’re looking to take something out of this game on Saturday.

“It’s important that we do because there a couple of chasing teams following us. We want to get a bit of space then focus on where we finish in the top six.”

While form has been promising, Clark has warned Shire can’t let complacency slip into their game.

He said: “If we take our eye off the ball it can put us back into a sticky situation.

“Most of the guys are fit and I think we have a full squad to choose from. But Ardrossan will be the same.”

Kick-off at the North Inch on Saturday is 3pm.