Kelso’s 27-24 win against Hawks at Poynder Park earns them a third top-flight season on the bounce, taking the Borderers to 46 points from 22 fixtures and out of reach of second-from-bottom Marr. Co-head coaches Bruce McNeil and Nikki Walker’s team remain in eighth place and that’s where they’ll see the season out, down from fourth last time round upon their return to the premiership after almost a quarter of a century away, unless ninth-placed Hawks, currently on 42 points from 21 matches, win at home to Selkirk this coming Saturday and leapfrog them in the table. Melrose, on 56 points from 22 games, were already safe and are now set to finish their first premiership season since 2019 in their current sixth place or seventh if Hawick win at Marr this Saturday with a bonus point or by a margin of more than a dozen points, that being up from fifth a division down last year. Both Hawks and Marr, on 34 points at the moment with two games left to go, are fighting to avoid joining third-from-bottom Edinburgh Academical and basement side Musselburgh in dropping down a division. Kelso’s confirmation of continued top-flight status means the region will have four representatives in the premiership next time round for the second year running, though, with reorganisation seeing it go down from 12 teams to ten, they'll account for just short of half of its complement of clubs rather than a third, as at present. Kelso’s tries were scored by left-winger Robbie Tweedie, scrum-half Andy Tait and right-winger Dwain Patterson, with Patterson converting all three and kicking two penalties. Touching down tries for Hawks were Ryan Flett, Seb Hastings, Jonny Morris and Ben Morriss, with Andy McLean and Liam Brims adding a conversion each. Patterson was delighted to see his side make amends for a 37-33 defeat in the reverse fixture in Glasgow in September, telling Borders Rugby TV afterwards: “Hawks beat us up there and they are a quality outfit. “They’ve developed a lot this season. We used to think they were just a crash-bang-wallop team but they really stretched us. They looked to play and they’ve got some quality operators. They’ve got some really good players and they moved us about. “We knew what was coming but what was massive was our start to the second half. We knew it was going to be tough in an absolute gale but we varied our attack, really worked our way up the pitch and almost defended in their half with the ball for as long as we could. “Everyone does some work on the park and there are some unsung heroes definitely. “We wanted to keep it in our own hands – we didn’t want to possibly scrape a point and then wait for other results to go our way. No one wants that – you want to get points on the board and make sure you’re safe yourselves. “We’ll have to kick on from here. We know it’s going to be cut-throat once again. It’s one going down but it’s a ten-team league so it’s not going to be easy.” On the scoresheet for co-head coaches Scott Wight and Iain Chisholm’s Melrose at the Greenyards were right-winger Connor Spence, replacement David Crawford and hooker Harri Morris all at the double, scrum-half Douglas Crawford and openside flanker Bruce Colvine, with left-winger Keiran Clark kicking five conversions. Musselburgh’s tries were scored by Ross Brown, Sandy Watt, Charlie McLean and Euan Bonthron, with Bruce Weatherhead and Peter Burns adding two conversions each. Wight was also glad to see his side go out on a high, saying: “We started the game really well, getting a 17-0 lead and went in at half-time 24-7 up but the game sort of frittered out in the second half. “Our primary goal at the start of the season was to stay up and make sure we’re playing premiership rugby next year and that’s what we’ve achieved.”