Mackie scores four in High’s victory

When Dundee High travelled to GHA earlier in the season they returned with a 34-12 win tucked away.

However, in their last two BT National 1 encounters, GHA had thumped Musselburgh 57-24 at Stoneyhill while the Dundee side had been on the wrong end of a 40-5 defeat against leaders Edinburgh Accies.

Therefore it was not going to be an easy one to predict when the Braidholm outfit pitched up at Mayfield and in a cracking match, it took an extraordinary scoring feat from Dundee No 8 Alasdair Mackie to clinch a 32-20 win.

GHA opened with a penalty from Andrew Goudie then Mackie scored his first try with Harvey Young converting to give the hosts the lead. Wing Andrew Spowart crossed for the first of his two tries to take GHA ahead but Mackie struck again to take Dundee in 12-8 up at the break.

Mackie’s hat-trick try opened an 11-point lead but that was cut by Spowart’s second strike. Hooker Kevin Franco’s try restored the High margin until Seitaro Usuda scored for GHA and Goudie converted, taking it back to a four-point lead for the hosts.

Young slotted a penalty and Mackie finished a remarkable afternoon’s work with the clinching try to give Dundee a bonus point win which sees them leapfrog GHA into fifth spot.

Colin Sangster’s side are now two points behind Selkirk and three adrift of Gala, but a win against the Netherdale men at Mayfield next week – if Selkirk go down at Aberdeen – a win could see Dundee could move up to third in the table.

The way other results fell on Saturday saw Kirkcaldy strengthen their grip on top spot in BT National 2 with second-placed Dumfries crashing 24-3 at Hamilton ensuring that the 28-7 win at Beveridge Park moved them seven points clear with two games in hand.

Half-time saw Kirkcaldy ahead 21-7 with Rhys and Owen Bonner both grabbing tries and Conor Wood adding a third, all converted by Finlay Smith.

Whitecraigs had managed a counter from Ryan O’neill, converted by Brandon Wanberg, but when Josh Laird crossed for the only try of the second half, Smith made it four out of four from the tee and the bonus point was in the bag.

The team now looking most likely to challenge Kirkcaldy are third-placed Lasswade who have played the same number of games but trail by 10 points.

Kirkcaldy begin their charge for glory when they tackle Howe of Fife, who were not in action at the weekend, at Duffus Park in their re-scheduled fixture on Saturday.

If Perthshire are going to survive in BT National 3, there are certain teams they have to pick up both league and match points against and bottom of the table Dalziel is one.

The North Inch outfit did that on Saturday, thrashing their visitors from Cleland by 50-10.

Scott Alcorn had two tries, Graham Clow, Peter Mcdougall, Andy Jack, Ewan Mackessack-leitch and Craig Cameron one each and Clow added a nap hand of conversions with Mcdougall kicking a sixth.

Things are still tight at the bottom of the table and with Newton Stewart due at North Inch this week determined to enhance what is a tenuous hold on top spot, it won’t be easy.