KELSO welcomed the big beasts of the Premiership jungle, Gala, to Poynder Park for the first game of the season in a Booker’s Border League pre-season match.

It was a beautiful day and a perfect pitch with a slight breeze favouring Kelso in the first half. Both sides warmed up with a four team round robin tournament last weekend.

It was, however, Gala who were the outstanding favourites, with Kelso only retaining five players in their statring line up who had played in the heroic last game of the season against Selkirk in March. The gala players knew their way to Poynder as three of their team had worn the black and white jerseys last season.

Kelso had the first chance to score with a long range penalty by Phil Hume but he was slightly off line. Gala showed up early in the game with a fine run by speedster, Craig Robertson, but he was felled in the tackle by Gary Mulroy who was making a welcome return for Kelso after a succession of injuries. Robertson did hit the try line after 10 minutes with a well worked try with him cutting in and spread-eagling the Kelso defence to go in at the posts, giving David O’Hagan a simple conversion.

A long clearance by Gregor Millar alleviated the pressure for Kelso but clever passing along the Gala back line allowed winger Keith Young to scamper in from 30 metres. The conversion was unsuccessful.

Kelso settled into a more controlled game and held their own for long passages of play until they won a penalty after Gala had been caught offside. Andrew Skeen chipped over the kick from 20 metered out.

That, however, just seemed to stir Gala into action and Robertson was on the end of a long pass to go in for his second try.

A great Kelso breakout involving Skeen, captain, Dom Buckley and Gary Mulroy took play up to the Gala 22. A retreating Kelso scrum brought success with Skeen sending Buckley in for a try which Skeen converted. Sound Kelso defence kept Gala at bay until just before the break when a line out won on the stand side resulted in a very crisp passing move along the line for Robertson, celebrating his birthday, to complete is hat trick and gain Gala the bonus point.

The second half was fairly attritional with chances mainly falling to Gala. Mulroy brought off another fine covering tackle to save one try but his luck ran out when he was deemed to have obstructed Robertson in the act of scoring and a penalty try was awarded.

The kick was chipped over by Rex Jeffrey who immediately scored the last try of the game with a long run in try to take the score to 38-10 with O’Hagan taking over the kicking duties .

Kelso had their moments, particularly when Gary Johnston raced around the outside but just did not have the pace to outflank the Marrons.

The second half was punctuated by the referee, David Crudge, and a few of the players having a lengthy chat about the weather or the cloud formation and the likelihood of a meteor shower tonight. But then again, it might have been some dodgy behaviour between the two packs!

All in all, it was an expected win for Gala who just had too much fire power and strength in depth for the home side. Kelso: Gary Mulroy, Aaron Jackson, Gary Johnston, Dom Buckley, Alan Haig, Andrew Skeen, Phil Hume, Gordon Harkins, Ross Henderson, Stuart Lowrie, Stef Carnegie, Ian Wallace, Gavin Blair, Liam Tait and Matthew Hall.

Gala: Ruaridh Howarth, Keith Young, Frank Robson, Alan Emond, Craig Robertson, David O’Hagan, George Graham, Luke Pettie, Callum McIntosh, Chris Keen, Craig Borthwick, Callum Rowlandson, Chris Weir, Stevie Cairns, Kris Mein