'SONIANS FIRST TITLE WIN DUNC 'N' DUSTED; Watsonians 34 West 8.

WATSONIANS are within touching distance of their first Tennents Championship.

Mathematically, they can still be pipped by Melrose but the Borderers would have to win their showdown by 69 points on Saturday.

And Sonians skipper Grant McKelvey declared: "There's no chance of them doing that to us!"

The happy hooker added: "It was frustrating not to get the bonus point which would have made sure of the title but our priority was just to get a win.

"We had half an hour to do it, but West kept killing the ball.

"I'm not complaining because we would have done exactly the same in that position."

Duncan Hodge was the big star in yesterday's victory. The stand-off grabbed all Watsonians points.

Hodge, whose haul included his first ever senior try hat-trick, said: "I have to be happy with my own performance but we should have finished it all off. We'll be going to Melrose to win in style."

Hodge landed three penalties as West persistently infringed in their own danger-zone.

After West had been pinned back for 20 minutes, they suddenly burst out to grab the first try of the match, only to instantly undo all the good work in five minutes of madness before the break.

Prop John Manson released Guy Curtis with a brilliant pop-pass and the Kiwi brushed off the challenge of John Kerr to slither in at the corner.

Watsonians replied with another Hodge penalty before he was literally handed his easiest touchdown of the season.

West winger Nicky Craig was put in an impossible position when his colleagues took a gamble by trying to run a penalty from near their own line.

Craig was blocked on all sides and he was panicked into passing sraight to Hodge, who had clear run from 10 metres out.

West eased the pressure slightly with a Curtis penalty just after the restart but any hopes of a fightback were snuffed out by yet another act of charity.

Again Hodge was the beneficiary as he intercepted a Fraser Stott pass to stroll 50 metres under the crossbar and give himself an easy conversion. And his solo scoring show continued three minutes later when he stroked over another penalty but that wasn't the end of him.

Seven minutes later, he pounced on another slip by Craig, hacked the ball over the line and followed up to get the vital touch - then converted for good measure.

West coach Muff Scobie said: "It was be kind to Watsonians day. We gave them every single point.''

It was all a big anti-climax for MELROSE who had to wait for 24 hours following their great 41-29 blitz of CURRIE on Saturday.

But skipper Carl Hogg stressed: "At least we did our bit when we could easily have wrecked our own chances."

For 60 minutes, Melrose were the dozy crew who have stumbled through the League campaign.

But suddenly their alarm clock rang as Currie scored their second try - and they promptly claimed four crackers of their own.

With a mixture of frustration and delight, Hogg declared: "I only wish I knew why we have played so badly in spells and so well in others."

Despite their disastrous end to the season, skipper Mark Blair is optimistic about Currie's future.

He said: "We have several key players coming back from injury and we are losing only a couple of players to the District set-up. The nucleus of a very good side remains for next term."