I AM SOMEWHAT tardy in reviewing the weekend's club matches, below the level of the Arnold Clark Premiership, for which I apologise, however, it does seem, each week, to take longer for Buddy and the Elves in the SRU Communications department to get their act together and collate all the results. Something wee Ron Evans, riding solo, could do by 6pm every Saturday.
Maybe if the Union had fewer apparatchiks gazing at lap tops at the Hive during a Women's International – like a line of nodding dogs – and had them actually working things would be better, just saying.
Even this early in the season, National 1 is showing up as a two-tier league. GHA, Stirling County, Glasgow Academicals and Biggar are at the front, each club having posted back-to-back bonus-point wins. Then come Jed-forest and Gala, each of whom have won one and lost one of their two games thus far, leaving Peebles, Boroughmuir, Highland and Dundee still searching for that first win.
Biggest win at the weekend was County's 62-31 win at Highland, not many teams will, I fancy, go up the A9 and win by that much. Biggest margin of victory was leaders GHA's 52-3 hammering of Gala at Braidholm.
WEEK ONE in National 2 saw Falkirk go to the head of the pack, after a 40-21 home win over Berwick. Other bonus-point wins were posted by Lasswade, Prteston Lodge and Stew-Mel, while GHK was the only losing side to take a consolation losing bonus point, from their 29-22 loss at Inverleith.
NATIONAL 3 opened with Allen Glen's sticking 84 points, without reply, on Cartha-Queen;s Park, while up in Kirkwall there was another points-fest, with Orkney beating West of Scotland 56-26. It was a lot tighter elsewhere, with Hillhead-Jordanhill beating Aberdeen Grammar 27-25 and Garnock and Dumfries Saints drawing 26-26.
THE TOP THREE sides in National 4 all scored 50 points, with Dunfermline going top, after whitewashing Greenock Wanderers. Leading the chase is newly-promoted Ardrossan Academicals, who beat Stewartry 59-12, followed by Whitecraigs, who thumped North Betwick 50-7.
Linlithgow and Strathmore also posted bonus-point wins, over Hamilton Bulls and Moray respectively, although in both games, the losers banked losing bonus points.
IN CALEDONIA MIDLANDS 1, Perthshire's 73-14 win at Grangemouth Stags saw them go top of the pile, ahead of Falkirk 2, who won what looks like having been a fun game over Panmure 50-40.
Biggest win of the day, hwoever, came in Caledonian North 1, where Aberdeenshire got their frustrations at being idle the previous weekend out of their system with an 88-0 thrashing of Caithness.
That win puts 'Shire second in the table, behind Mackie FP, who went top after beating Ellon 60-14.
GLENROTHES have made a high-scoring start to the season, scoring ov er 100 points in their two opening games in Midlands 2, to head the table. On Saturday, they won 62-7 at Aberfeldy. Crieff & Strathearn are in second spot, following their 21-14 win at Bannockburn.
GORDONIANS made it two wins from two games on Saturday; beating Garioch 18-5 to lead the North 2 Grampian Conference from Shetland, whose first trip south to the mainland brought them an 85-5 win over Aberdeen Grammar 2.
In the Highlands and Islands Conference, Highland 3 posted their second straight big win, beating Moray 2 50-14 to lead the table
IN MIDLANDS 3, Kirkcaldy's 59-19 defeat of Rosyth Sharks has them top of the heap, with two wins from two games. The chase is being led by Waid Academy FP, who beat Arbroath 56-24.
EAST REGION was the last to fire-up for the new season, but they got going on Saturday and in Division 1, Dalkeith went straight to the top of the table, courtesy of the only bonus-point win on the day, a narrow 36-32 win over Ross High.
Broughton, 19-7 winners at Portobello, and Langholm, who beat Murrayfield Wanderers 17-14 at Milntown were the other winners. Forrester and Haddington drew 21-21 in the other match.
DUNBAR went straight to the top of East Division 2, with a 45-9 win at Trinity Academicals. The other winners in this division were Corstorphine and Livingston, beating Leith and Penicuik respectively, while Royal High were unable to field a team for theis scheduled visit to Hawick Harlequins.
QUESTION – What has happened to Rugby in Galashiels? As if The Maroons shipping ov er 50 points at GHA wasn't bad enough, back at home Gala YM were on the wrong end of a 25-103 home hammering from Earlston, who immediately went to the head of the East Division 3 table.
Hawick Linden, Duns and Lismore were the other winners in this division. But, it wasn't all bad for Gala YM, who lie fifth in the table, courtesy of the four tries they scored in their heavy defeat.
IN WEST Division 1, Kilmarnock maintained their high-scoring start to the season by winning 63-7 at Bishopton. They have averaged 60 points per game in their first three league games. New Coach Mackenzie Pearce, clearly learned how to motivate players from his years under Craig Redpath at Marr.
Oban Lorne and East Kilbride are the other still unbeaten sides and I am told the EK performance in winning by a tennis score – 40-15 at Dalziel even had Wee Grumpy Coach Franklin Clark smiling.
STRATHENDRICK are setting the pace in West 2. A 50-10 win at Lomond andf Helensburgh has them three points clear of Uddingston, with Carrick, who lost 17-28 against Wigtownshire – the only other unbeaten club in the division, who have played one game less – on the bottom of the A77 Derby in Stranraer.
Clydebank remain rooted at the foot of the table, but, after shipping over 80 points in each of their opening games, they only conceded 61 points at Birkmyre – small steps.
THERE WAS only one game in West 3, Lochaber beating Hyndland 64-3 to go second in the table,
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