NORTH Berwick maintained their winning run with a hard-fought bonus point win over Dalkeith on Saturday.

Jason White’s side are unbeaten in East 1 this season, but they have incurred a deduction of two points following their recent call-off with title challengers St Boswells.

The county outfit had to postpone the fixture – which had been scheduled to take place on Saturday, November 21 – due to a lack of front-row players, and have been docked two points by Scottish Rugby as a result.

But despite that disappointment, they were in good form on Saturday in Midlothian, with brothers Iain and Jamie Dove to the fore among the pack as they won the match well.

Jamie was at number eight, again in the absence of vice-captain Ben Inglis, and he helped himself to one of five North Berwick tries.

Brother Iain, a mainstay of the second row, crossed twice for Jason White’s side.

And victory was secured thanks to tries from Findlay Graham and Mac Jerome.

The usually-reliable stand-off Liam West had an off-day with the boot, landing only two of the five conversions, but the county club were always well in command of the match.

The win sees North Berwick climb to the top of the East 1 table for the first time this season, but St Boswells, who are also unbeaten, are only three points behind the East Lothian outfit and have a game in hand on them, as a result of again not playing a fixture this weekend.

North Berwick will hope to continue their winning streak – now at seven games – when they return to action at Recreation Park on Saturday.

Seventh-place Forrester are the visitors and North Berwick will be strong favourites to make it eight wins out of eight this season.

North Berwick: F Graham, S Mackle, R Ritchie, G Walker, M West; L West, G Spence; R Mercer, G Black, A Gallagher, R Duncanson, I Dove, C Warnock, M Wallace, J Dove.