It was hard to believe that Melrose had taken so long to stamp its authority and repeat its victory over Kelso in 1974.

Melrose had pace in South African speedster Austin Lockington, Callum Anderson and Allan Dodds, but they also had the little maestro, Andrew Skeen, controlling operations.

“Accies are a quality side and the final could have gone either way,” said the captain. “There were a few tense moments, but we all worked hard to get the result.

“We are looking at the bigger picture in the Kings of the Sevens and we need as many points as we can. It will be good to return to my home town (Berwick), but we want to back up what we did at Hawick. Our goal is the Kings of the Sevens title again, but we are losing a few boys (Grant Runciman and Bruce Colvine to New Zealand), and we may have a couple of injuries, and we need to keep picking up points.” Skeen is a key cog in the Melrose sevens’ wheel with his 'reading’ of the game and his goal-kicking key elements, but basically this is a team effort in which the whole squad had a role to play on the dry, dusty pitch.

Lockington scored one of Melrose’s two first-half scores in the final, the other coming from Skeen for a 10-0 interval lead.

The game ebbed and flowed after the break with Sam Pecquer Alex Godsmark and Ryan Godsmark tries sandwiched between scores from Lockington and Skeen, the last try too late to influence the final scoreline.

Significantly, Accies fielded three Godsmark brothers, all previously of Selkirk, and Gala’s Iain Berthinussen, evidence indeed, if required, that they take sevens seriously.

The Kings of the Sevens leaders were impressive during the afternoon, and its 31-12 win in the first of the semi-finals over Gala signalled out the Greenyards side as the best team on view.

Craig Russell scored two tries for Gala, but were unable to match their opponents’ pace.

Accies had their own hero in Pecquer, whose third try proved to be the clincher against Watsonians, previous Kings winners.

Hawick failed in its bid to make it seven titles in a row when a poor clearance kick allowed Alex Godsmark to win the game against Accies in the final seconds.

In four ties, Melrose scored 126 points, but arguments will continue that there are too many sevens’ tournaments in a short space of time.

Results - First round: Hamilton 14, President’s V11 15; Gala 52; Northumberland City 0; Peebles 10, Edinburgh University 0; Hawick YM 0, Melrose 38; Hawick 31, Jed-Forest 14; SMT Trinbago Barbarians 12, Edinburgh Academicals 34; Selkirk 38, Langholm 0; Kelso 10, Watsonians 31.

Second round: President’s V11 5, Gala 33; Peebles 5, Melrose 33; Hawick 22, Edinburgh Accies 24; Selkirk 7, Watsonians 21.

Semi-finals: Gala 12, Melrose 31; Edinburgh Accies 21, Watsonians 19. Final: Melrose 24, Edinburgh Accies 17.

Melrose: A. Lockington, J. Helps, A. Dodds, C. Anderson, L. Mallin, A. Skeen, B. Colvine, R. Ovens, R. Mill, A. Nagle.