Unfortunately some club champions were not available and as a result some players had byes straight into the last 16.

Richard Lackenby of Duns Park had a reasonably comfortable win against the champion of Waverley while Colin Rae of Wilton had a much closer encounter with Neil Kellett of Gordon. Rae had the edge over his opponent for much of the game and with the score at 14 shots to 11 in his favour he gained 6 shots in three ends to be just one shot short of victory.

However, it took another four ends for him to achieve this objective with Kellett taking the score to 20 shots to 15 in the space of three ends.

It was also a close contest in the Berwickshire derby between Robert Kerr of Ayton and Campbell McNeil of Eyemouth.

It could not have been a better start for McNeil with a full house of 4 on the first end, however, after eight ends it was 8 shots each.

The score was then 10 shots each and 13 shots apiece before Kerr made a positive move taking the score to 19 shots to 15.

The match looked to be his but McNeil gained his second full house of the game to level the score at 19 shots each. Either player could have won in one end but it was Kerr who finished the match with 2 shots on the next end.

In the next session of games, Ettrick Forest were against Coldstream and Berwick faced Hawick. Kenneth Hendrie of Ettrick Forest started confidently and was 11 shots to 2 ahead but with the help of a full house, Mark Baillie of Coldstream pulled the score back to 14 shots to 11.

However, Hendrie hung on to win by 21 shots to 16.

Lyn Guy of Berwick met Ewan McGregor of Hawick, with the Hawick champion coming out on top in another tight match.

The last game to be played in the first round was between Dod Smith of Newtown and Alistair White of Kelso. Smith is a tough competitor in singles and showed this when gaining the best of the early ends with a 9 shots to 4 lead.

White showed his strength in singles play taking 6 shots in three ends and a one shot advantage.

This did not last and Smith kept in front reaching 18 shots to 14 then 20 shots to 17 needing just the one shot for victory. Unfortunately for him he could not gain the one shot required and three ends later White had won by 21 shots to 20.

The last 16 will now play on Saturday, September 6 when one player will become the Champion of Champions for 2008.

The qualifying players and second round matches are as follows:-
Ross Nichol (Lauder) v David Weir (Selkirk), Robert Kerr(Ayton) against Richard Lackenby (Duns Park), Colin Rae(Wilton) v Kenneth Hendrie (Ettrick Forest), Niki Hill (Jedburgh) v Robert Crawford (St.Ronans) or John Purves(Abbotsford),
Ewan McGregor (Hawick) - bye, Rob Fulton (Gala) v Alistair White (Kelso), Martin Goodfellow (Earlston) v Chirnside champion, Ancrum champion v Spittal champion.