THE quarter-finals of the Edinburgh Cup begin tonight with the pick of the four ties featuring the clash between EBL Division 1 clubs Parkside and Hillside.
Hillside have yet to win this event, sponsored by Specsavers Opticians, however Parkside triumphed in 2005 and previous winners still in contention are Tanfield and Pilrig.
Tanfield, successful in 2001, face Maitland tonight while Pilrig step up t
heir bid to add to their 1998 and 2006 triumphs, against Northern. The remaining tie features Queensberry and Corstorphine.
Parkside still have designs on the 2008 Edinburgh & Leith Top Five Singles title, having blitzed Juniper Green 5-0 in last night's third round.
Juniper Green had home advantage but the 2001 champions failed to strike a blow against a Parkside challenge that got off to a spectacular start in the shape of Robert Donaldson's crushing 21-4 demolition of David Ross.
Parkside's Alex Hurry was a hero of the 2001 Juniper success and the former club champion returned to his happy hunting ground to inflict a 21-9 defeat on Graeme McAdam and so put Parkside 2-0 up. Win number three earned Parkside a place in the semi-finals and that honour fell to Darren Grant as he accelerated from 6-6 to 15-6 then carried on to clinch a 21-11 win over Colin Gilchrist.
Play continued with Willie Watson making it 4-0 at the 21-18 expense of Chris Wilson, then Parkside achieved the clean sweep when Paul Veitch beat Russell Wilson, 21-14.
• GILMERTON BC both introduce and host an exciting invitation singles tournament this weekend with a field of 32 challenging for Midlothian's richest prize in the shape of a £1000 title in the Famous Grouse Whisky sponsored event.
Play commences at 10.00am tomorrow with eight sections of four playing round-robin style to produce 16 qualifiers for the knockout stage on Sunday.
• HOLDERS Newbridge swept into the third round of the BARBQ sponsored WLBA Top Five Singles with a 5-0 home victory over Bellsburn last night but four other clashes went down to last-match deciders. Linlithgow edged a 3-2 away win over Pumpherston and similar results saw Buchan Park beat West Calder, Broxburn beat Glenmavis, and Armadale beat Uphall Station.
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