Jed-Forest 18

Selkirk 10

Atholl Innes

at Riverside Park

SELKIRK’S cup hopes disappeared amidst the mist that enshrouded Riverside Park on Friday night.

At times, it was difficult to even see the scoreboard on the far side of the pitch – but that was neither an excuse nor a real reason for this defeat.

The teams were fairly evenly matched and it was decided, at the end of the day, by a yellow card to Frazer Anderson and a couple of missed conversions.

The sin-binning proved costly as Jed cashed in with two tries just after half-time, and while the Souters regrouped, their late challenge, which produced a try for Darren Clapperton, was of no avail as they needed two scores.

While many clubs view the cup as an unnecessary break in the league programme, both teams turned the game into a true all-Borders contest… an argument that we need more such fixtures.

Against a Jed side, still reeling from the draw with Aberdeen Grammar a week earlier, Selkirk were ‘up’ for the contest only to fall 0-6 behind to two Gary Munro penalties.

However, they gained a lifeline on the stroke of half-time as Anderson, in the gloom of the far corner, got over for the try which cut the gap to 6-5 at the interval.

But the roof caved in when, with Anderson in the sin-bin, Rory Marshall burst through for a try, which Munro converted, and Paulo Ferreria drove over for the second.

Clapperton’s pace added a second try for Selkirk, but despite dominating much of the play, they failed to add to their total to lose to Jed for the second time this season.

Jed-forest: L Young; C Young, G Munro, G Young, R Marshall; M Mitchell, J McGough, O Ryan, R lamont, P Ferreira, C Skeldon, G Law, D Wardrop, J Howe & B Roff. Replacements C McJKay, J Bowie, J Szkudro, D Grieve & K Amos.

Selkirk: H. Bithray; F. Anderson, C. MacDougall, R. Nixon, D. Clapperton; A. McColm, S. Tough; L. Pettie, C. Higgins, B. Riddell, A. Renwick, P. Forrest, S. Nixon, E. MacDougall & S. McClymont. Replacements: J. Bett, R. Reilly, A. McColm & L. Davidson.