Midlothian missed out on title twice through rules mix-up

FROM THE EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS WEBSITE
By MARTIN DEMPSTER
Midlothian women's golf team missed out on a Scottish title due to officials playing to the wrong rules.
It has emerged that Midlothian should have won last year's (2009) event at Baberton instead of being pipped for the crown.
Wrongly, halved games were included in the countback which saw Northern Counties walk away with the title.
And salt was rubbed into the wounds by the fact they would have won this year's event at Bothwell Castle if the same method had been used.
"This year, an SLGA official discovered that, according to the rules of the competition, games which had been halved were not included in any countback and the wrong rules had been played to in previous years," said Tracy Laughland, who has just stepped down as captain of Midlothian County Ladies' Golf Association.

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E-mail from Ros Dunsmuir (Cruden Bay)
                                               past Aberdeenshire county captain

I have just read the story regarding the rules mix up in the County Finals.  The rules regarding this competition are quite clearly stated in the SLGA handbook.  It is my view that the County Captains concerned share some of the responsibility for the mix up as they should have been quite certain in their own minds as to the interpretation of the rules and cross checked that they were being applied appropriately. 

The article does not reveal if the calculations of the countback were questioned at the time.  If the results were questioned and the explanation accepted then I'm afraid that the outcome has to be accepted without more ado.

 Ros Dunsmuir