Biggar 45

Preston Lodge 17

Iain Chisholm

at Hartree Mill

BIGGAR entertained Preston Lodge on Saturday with an early kick off to allow all to watch the Calcutta Cup match.

Having been beaten by just one point back in October the Biggar squad were keen to gain revenge over their East Lothian opponents.

And this they did with a vengeance and in some style.

Biggar kicked off towards the club house and were on the scoreboard soon after as the resulting clearance was put into touch well inside Preston Lodge territory.

From the ensuing lineout Aird Jardine put a neat chip over the top which was gathered by Notman and eventually fed back to Jardine who dived in under the posts. He converted his own try for 7-0 lead.

Biggar failed to field the high hanging kick off handing possession back to Preston.

Scrum half Brian Walls popped over a drop goal from the back of the ruck.

A plethora of errors allowed Lodge to make their way up the pitch again for Chris Dixon to score from a well worked driving maul.

Biggar replied instantly when loose ball was cleared up by Aird Jardine and somehow he wriggled his way over the line with a bit of help from Voas and Stewart.

Just five minutes later some excellent build up play set Richard Peacock free down the scoreboard side to score in the corner.

Jardine converted the first but missed the difficult attempt from out wide for the second for a 19-10 lead.

The blacks didn't ease up and against the run of play Notman gave an offload to Stewart who offloaded to Peacock and the move was finished off by Andrew Jardine to go over under the post. Older brother Aird converted the score.

Preston Lodge started the better of the two teams in the second half as they kicked long and forced Biggar to clear their lines into a heavy breeze. Stewart, Sanderson and replacement Andrew Orr all defended majestically and were rewarded with a try against the run of play when David Paterson scurried in under the posts to make an easy conversion for Aird Jardine.

Lodge weren't disheartened and captain Peter Johnson squeezed over from a driving maul. Brian Walls converted beautifully from out wide.

Andrew Orr glided past three covering defenders to finish outstretched in the far burn corner to restore Biggar's healthy advantage.

Biggar were clearly confident and marched back up the pitch again going through over 20 phases in the process.

Reive moved the ball wider and Aird Jardine found a tired prop in midfield to go over untouched and complete his hat trick.

A fine performance from an excitable Biggar side with Aird Jardine showing up well with 3 tries but the real hard work was done in the tight with outstanding displays from Ewan Stewart, Euan Sanderson and Andrew Orr leading the way into next week.

Biggar: Richard Peacock, Alistair Sinclair, Stuart Hull, Andrew Jardine, David Paterson, David Reive, Aird Jardine, Donald Voas, Ewan Stewart, Dan O'Connell, Jamie Orr, A. Warnock, Ewan Sanderson, Douglas Notman, Andrew Dunlop Reps: Lewis McClinton, Andrew Orr, Gregor Stewart,