Inverleith still in front but Wildcats on prowl

Inverleith retained top spot in the indoor First Division with victories over Dunfermline Carnegie and Dundee Wanderers, but Western Wildcats are just three points adrift.

The game against Wanderers was in the balance at 4-4 midway through the second half and several visits to the sin bin reduced the champions to five players for a total of eight minutes. However, Wanderers failed to capitalise and it was the Edinburgh side who took the honours with an open-play winner by Ewen Mackie.

Earlier, Inverleith had seen off Dunfermline 6-3, in a game which featured two goals each for David Ogden and Stephen Dick.

In the meantime, Wildcats clawed their way into second spot with comfortable wins over Kelburne (12-1), Clydesdale (6-2) and Dunfermline (5-2). Helping themselves to most of the goals were Hamish Galt, Fraser Moran and Andrew Mcconnell.

Grange slipped into third after seeing off Clydesdale 9-5 in their final match, a hat-trick by Duncan Riddell and two from Callum Milne doing the damage.

Riddell again, along with Alan Johnston and Clemens Rusnjak, provided the goals for Grange’s 3-1 win over Wanderers, but the party was spoiled a little when they were held to a 5-5 draw by Dunfermline. Dundee Wanderers opened up a three-point lead at the top of the women’s competition after a 9-3 thrashing of Tayside rivals Grove. Ruth Blaikie scored a hat-trick and she was supported by doubles from Ellie Wilson and Vikki Bunce.

Earlier, Wanderers saw off Watsonians 5-1, with Bunce the hat-trick star this time.

Clydesdale Western moved into second spot after back-to-back victories over Grange and Edinburgh University.

Meanwhile, in India, Belgium won the FIH World Cup for the first time in their history after beating neighbours Holland 3-2 in a penalty shoot-out following a goalless draw in normal time. Australia thumped England 8-1 to clinch the bronze medal.