FROM THE EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS WEBSITE
By Martin Dempster
Craigielaw's Simon Fairburn retained the Lothians boys' championship at the Braids last night – the first player to achieve the feat since the legendary Ronnie Shade nearly 50 years ago.
In an exciting final, Fairburn completed back-to-back wins as he beat Liberton's Anthony Blaney on the last green after being three up with four holes to play.
Shade won the event three years in a row from 1954-56 while only two other players have retained the title in the event's history – E L Thomson (Royal High) in 1929-30 and W G Gardner (George Watson's) in 1947-48.
Fairburn, pictured, runner-up in this year's Scottish youths' championship, was made to work hard to join that exclusive club after getting off to a flying start in the conclusion to this year's Golf Finance-sponsored event. The 18-year-old pitched dead for a conceded birdie at the first and also won the third, hitting his approach there to four feet for another birdie.
Blaney replied with a hole-winning birdie at the fourth, where his opponent hit his tee shot into a gorse bush, before squaring matters when he won the sixth after holing from 12 feet for a par.
A longer hitter, Fairburn drove the seventh and eighth to win both of them with birdies and looked to be well in control after he went three up at the ninth, where Blaney missed the green and failed to get up and down. A blocked drive from Fairburn allowed his opponent to win the tenth with a birdie-4 and Blaney holed a tricky five-footer at the par-13th to remain two down.
Fairburn then won the 14th, where he pitched to about two feet for a birdie, but Blaney had done well to make it to the final and wasn't about to throw in the towel without putting up a fight. At the 15th, it was his turn to produce a great pitch that set up a hole-winning birdie and he then holed a curling ten-footer to win the 16th with another birdie.
After three-putting the 17th, Fairburn's lead had vanished completely but Blaney missed his chance to put the defending champion under pressure when he hooked his tee shot at the last into the gorse.
Fairburn duly drove the green and, after lipping the hole with his 30-foot eagle attempt, was conceded the hole.
Blaney joins forces with Grant Forrest, Fraser Thain and Graeme Duncan and it's unlikely that any of the other 15 teams taking part will have prepared better for the event.
"We have prepared the best we possibly can," said Lothians junior convenor Paul Gibson. "(Former European Tour player] Dean Robertson held a couple of performance and coaching days with our boys down at Peebles and he was a revelation. We are going to Peebles with high hopes and any team that finishes ahead of Borders will be in with a shout."
That's due to the fact that, in addition to the on-form Fairburn, the hosts have two players, Craig Howie and Daniel Flannery, in their team who are playing on home soil tomorrow.
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