IAN RANKIN has hailed "sweet revenge" for his Scottish crime writers after they "murdered" their English counterparts in an annual football match.
The Rebus writer, 57, skippered the Scots to a 6-3 massacre over the Auld Enemy to avenge last year's 7-1 drubbing.
The fourth annual crime writers match was played on Saturday afternoon as part of the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival in Stirling, which closed tonight/last night [SUN].
The Scots won the inaugural match 13-1 but were held to a 5-5 draw in 2015 and suffered their first defeat last year.
But there was no need for "sudden death" as Scots authors Doug Johnstone, Thomas Enger, Danny Scott and a hat trick from Gaelic poet Peter Mackay sank their rivals.
Best-seller Doug Johnstone kept up his scoring run against the English with his eleventh goal in the fixture, while English keeper Luca Veste saved two penalties to keep the score down.
The Scots were even able to sip Stirling Gin "Bloody Scotland cocktails" at half time.
Rankin said: "It was sweet revenge for Scotland after a drubbing last year, but the best thing was the quality of football on both sides."
Scots sweeper Craig Robertson joked: "The English got lucky last year, but revenge is sweet. We passed the ball about and took our chances well."
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