Any doubts or fears any Lasswade supporter might have had about needing the Langholm game in a fortnight to secure the National One Championship were dispersed with the greatest dispatch. Their team notched up just short of a point a minute from six tries and three conversions in the first half of this game, while third placed Garnock, with 14 wins out of 19, could only get three points on the board.

For a very short while the visitors had the better of the second half but ended up four tries to two behind in that period as well.

The Ayrshire outfit were expected to make life more difficult for the Championship wannabes but were clearly shocked and awed by the ferocity, efficiency, and continuity of the Hawthornden attacks.

Fittingly, it was Lasswade captain, Mark Billingham who opened the scoring with just two minutes gone. From a ruck near the line the ball was popped to him at full burst to drive through the Garnock backs wide of the posts.

Five minutes later Brown touched down a pushover try and on the quarter hour, emphasising the home dominance of the set piece a Garnock scrum ball on their 22 was shaken loose and Clark snatched it up to weave over for the that were to first of his three tries that were to earn him Man-of-the-match. Brown converted to make it 17-0.

In one of very few visits Walker successfully opted for goal when Lasswade strayed offside at a ruck.

That proved to be only a brief respite as Clark replicated his first try, this time from a Garnock five metre scrum at the start of the second quarter and just three minutes later, Lasswade stole a Garnock lineout ball on the 22 and whipped the ball to Ali Elliot on the opposite wing with a tight overlap to force into the corner.

Garnock recovered enough composure to stem the bloodletting for the next 15 minutes but going into stoppage time Brown touched down after another pushover failed but Clark and then Hennessey set him up for the line. The subsequent conversion and two others brought his personal tally to 16 points from the half time score of 36-3.

The first half may have gone to the league leaders heads a bit as they opened the second half by gifting an interception to Irvine the Garnock centre when trying to run back the restart kick from their 22. Walker’s conversion got them into double figures.

This lapse was almost immediately wiped out when Brown picked up from a five-metre scrum and fed Clark to slip through the hands of three defenders to complete his hat-trick.

A third pushover try by Brown and his own conversion brought up the half century with just under half hour still remaining.

As everyone tried to get in on the scoring mistakes crept in and Garnock came back into the game with second row Robertson driving in beside the posts after a period of sustained pressure on the Lasswade 22. Walker added the two points.

Again this was soon chalked off as a 6 metre lineout and two controlled recycles set Blair Smith up to fight his way to the line.

Still fighting, Garnock were threatening to score again in the last ten minutes but knocked on in the act of diving over. Wood’s clearance from the 5-metre scrum was misjudged by the Garnock full back, snapped up by Sharp with a supporting trio and Hennessey finished off the 105-metre breakout beside the opposition posts. Brown’s seventh conversion finalised the scoring.

R. Payne