Kelso 15 Boroughmuir 7 half time 3-0
It was a must win game for Kelso as they languished near the foot of the table but the visitors, who had adopted Eddie Jones’s policy of having the bus arrive late for the game, were also in the mire. It was a day of penalties, 31 of them; it was day of yellow cards, 4 of them but it was not a day for well- constructed tries, only 3 of them.
Kelso opened the scoring after only 4 minutes when Muir were caught offside and Craig Dods slotted the penalty. There followed a dominant passage of play for Boroughmuir and that pressure enticed Kelso to concede penalties. After Kelso worked a good exit strategy, they put themselves in trouble by committing a couple of high tackles, the second of which led to a yellow card for the hosts’ captain, Murray Hastie, after 24 minutes. However, Muir did not make the most of this and failed to score during the sin bin period although Calum Anderson at stand off had a chance but missed with a penalty attempt.
It was the visitors turn to land themselves in bother with high tackles and after an official warning to the Muir captain, they transgressed again and it was number 8, Cammy Orr’s turn to have a 10 minute break. Matt Kindness made a blistering run into the Muir 22 but despite a Sonny Bill type offload to Frankie Robson, nothing came of it. Kelso finished the half well on top but no further scoring took us to the break at 3-0.
The second period started scrappily but after good work by replacement Andrew Ford, a try came with a powerful forward drive with Derek Welsh getting the touch down. Dods converted. Kelso’s pick and go strategy meant they had a good control of the game. Following another high tackle, a fracas ensued and replacement, Derry McConnell, went to the bin. Kelso did not make the most of the numerical advantage although a strong kick and chase forced Muir to carry over and from the scrum 5, Kelso spun the ball along the line for Arran Jackson to go over in the corner. It was too far out for the conversion to be successful.
It was time for Kelso to close out the game but a succession of handling errors meant that they could not score again. Another few penalties saw Scott Hilton go to the bin for a team foul. Muir elected for a scrum from the penalty and scrum half, Jack Hamilton, made a sniping break to go clean through at the posts to give Gavin Welsh an easy conversion.
There was little time left but Kelso still managed to butcher a chance by cutting in instead of passing and the visitors intercepted and broke out to the Kelso 10 metre line. That was it with Kelso coming through by 15-7 to gain 4 league points and equally importantly preventing Boroughmuir from getting anything out of the game.
With another away trip to come to Ayr next week, Kelso has a very important game against Dundee to come in a couple of week’s time.
Kelso team: Murray Hastie; Gareth Walker; Frankie Robson; Matt Kindness; Robbie Tweedie, Craig Dods, Andy Tait; Craig Sweenie; Blair Robertson; Gareth Clark; Alex Thompson, Kieran Dunbar, Kevin Dryden; Archie Cowens, Cammy Brown;
Replacements: Andrew Ford, Scott Hilton, Derek Welsh, Mark Wilson and Arran Jackson
Scorers: Derek Welsh and Arran Jackson tries and Craig Dods 1 pen and 1 con

1-Craig Sweenie
2-Blair Robertson
3-Gareth Clark
4-Derek Welsh
5-Alex Thompson 
6-Archie Cowens 
7-Kev Dryden
8-Cammy Brown
9-Andy Tait 
10-Craig Dods
11-Robbie Tweedie
12-Frank Robson
13-Matt Kindness 
14-Gareth Walker 
15-Murray Hastie (C)
Subs
16-Andrew Ford
17- Scott Hilton
18-Patrick Lawlor
19- Kieran Dunbar 
20-Mark Wilson