IN A THRILLING climax to the season, four teams were in the battle for the top three places in the East Lothian Junior Golf League.

Going into the final matchday, Craigielaw had a two-point lead over Gullane and a six-point lead over West Links, North Berwick.

The East Lothian Girls’ Team were well placed only three points behind West Links.

Paired with their rivals Gullane and West Links, the Craigielaw team of Callum Waugh, Adam McLean, Lewis Russell, Alexander Yuill, Fraser Walters and Magnus Braby all stepped up their games to win maximum points for the third time this season to edge home as winners of the league.

Their final advantage was four points ahead of Gullane and seven points ahead of West Links.

The only other team with three wins this season were the East Lothian Girls’ Team and they finished in fourth place in the league table.

Craigielaw used 15 players in the season, Gullane used 21 and West Links used 12.

All players in these three squads received prizes which were donated by The R&A and by Muirfield.

It has been a great season for Craigielaw, as they also won the Scottish Junior Team Championship recently (see story below).

There were many prizes to sort out after the final East Lothian Junior Golf League matchday at the West Links.

Thanks went to Stuart Martin of the host club for assisting with the compilation of these.

There were 130 juniors who competed in at least one matchday this year.

The format is that players count their best five placings at the 10 matchdays.

The outright Scratch OOM (Order of Merit) winner was current Lothians Boys’ champion Fergus Brown of Gullane, who won by nine OOM points from Luke Greig of Royal Musselburgh.

Brown’s seven appearances in the 10 matchdays resulted in these finishing positions (with T indicating a tied place) – 1, 1, 2, T2 and T4.

He was able to discard other finishes of T5 and T9.

Brown showed a consistently high standard all year and thoroughly deserved his voucher for £100 and an Open Championship woolly hat.

His handicap was reduced to +1.1 by the end of the season.

Greig, the current East Lothian Junior League champion, was placed T1, T2, T3, T4 and 4 in his best five placings from seven appearances.

The third to fifth placed players, who all received vouchers and prizes, were Jack Lucas of Gullane, Magnus Braby of Craigielaw and Jack Collingswood of the West Links.

The winner of the Net OOM, and a voucher for £100 and an Open Championship woolly hat, was Connor Cook of Gifford, who was placed T1, T2, T4, T6 and T7 in his best five placings from eight appearances.

In the final matchday of the season at West Links, Cook’s closest pursuer, Daryl Yuill of Craigielaw, could not make up the gap and improve on his worst placing of T13.

During the season, Cook reduced his handicap from 24 to 16.

Other prizewinners were Adam McLean of Craigielaw, Jamie Barker of Royal Musselburgh and Harry Dunkinson, who filled the next three places.

Five players also received a prize for playing in all 10 matchdays.

There were additional prizes for girls and for age groups U14 and U12.

The top girl in the Scratch section was Evie McCallum and in the Net section it was Rebecca Wilson, both playing for the East Lothian Girls’ Team.

They both received golf caps from the recent US Women’s Open, which were both signed by Catriona Matthew.

All the other players in the prize list received prizes donated either by the league, The R&A or by the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers at Muirfield.