The greens convenor and staff, however, had other ideas, and set up a challenging course which no-one "embarrassed" by scoring extremely low.

Best scores of the day were claimed by father and son duo, Paul and Jordan Maclean who shared top spot with Ian Morrison and Andy Reeves with excellent nett 41's (4-under par).

Other teams who will doubtless feature regularly shared the "minor" points; pick of the scoring being Neil Rowlands' excellent solo 44.

Partner Andy MacDonald is recovering from minor injury, and without doubt as with most pairings, the sum being greater than the parts, they will pose a serious threat to the top points in the opening stages of the competition.

As with all the top pairings, it will be their performance with reduced handicaps that will determine the latter stages of the winter "marathon".

Paul and Jordan have spent the summer season fighting for home bragging rights (young Jordan winning by 0.5), but now they are pulling in the same direction they may pose a serious challenge to the rest of the league. I

an and Andy will look to provide some consistency to a challenge which they both know they are capable of making.

On their day they can pull out scores which will claim decent points, but can they do it regularly?

To win the league you need to produce quality golf, and not just intermittently.

They will look to build on this promising start.

Obviously it's far too early to begin predicting from the results of week one who will win the league, but it was good to see so many pairings participating so keenly in week one.

Even if it was only for half a dozen holes.

Stranger to the greener side of the wall (he is usually too busy taking care of the clubs greenbacks), club treasurer Ali "Ban" MacLennan (he of the lost balls), and long suffering partner Neil "Flute" MacLeod were, apparently, heading for a famous win at the halfway point.

Unfortunately the adage about chickens being counted prematurely fell true as this correspondents' lack of care in packing the (very) necessary "provisions" for the arduous slog round 2/3rds of the course meant I had nothing to propel them onwards to what looked a sure victory as our paths crossed at the Dardanelles tee.

My apologies to both. Bunnahabhainn please note: my supplies are running out. Can I have a sponsor please?



With several of the more difficult holes remaining in play (Castle, Dardanelles), and the treacherous, hybrid, Cup-Foresters ruining many cards, another less conspicuous "corner" of the course is proving difficult to negotiate.

The Redan, short par 3 Heather (from the memorial tee), followed by the Memorial, played from adjacent to the Heather green (I've lost you now!)have caught out many who took too casual an approach to their nuances and hazards.

Not that the flag placings aren't awkward enough, but the ability to hit an accurate wedge is often not the most potent weapon needed to score well, or indeed complete these holes at all.

The ability to run quickly waving ones arms and shouting at the top of ones lungs comes in very useful too.

If only to finish the hole with the ball you started with.

Why?

Crows, that's why.

Or at least I thought they were crows till I looked up the R.S.P.B.'s website and found out that the carrion crow was resident in "All UK except N and W Scotland and N Ireland."

Must be a rook then?

Nope. Not them either.

As I'm sure avid readers of the twitchers column in this paper would confirm what we have in the Western Isles are Ravens and Hooded crows. In that case we have a lot of Ravens, because these were most definitely big, most definitely black, and whilst they should be "masked" because of their thievery, they are fairly uniform in plumage.

Plumage that given the choice many of us would love to see scattered vigorously across the course.

Just once, and only as a deterrent.

Can I say that?

For full report, see this week's 'Gazette'.