Second-half tries from Chris Laidlaw and Sep Visser helped Boroughmuir win the battle of the bottom two in the BT Premiership yesterday.

Edinburgh Accies took the lead in the 10th minute at Meggetland, thanks to a penalty from Alex Glashan. Thirteen minutes later the home side's pack put in some good work and eventually skipper Andy Rose went over for a converted try. Glashan then kicked two more penalties for Accies to put them 9-7 ahead.

A few minutes before the break Boroughmuir's prop Simon Berghan was yellow-carded.

'Muir regained the lead three minutes after half time when Laidlaw kicked a penalty to add to his earlier conversion.

The game then came to life with converted tries for both sides in the space of four minutes. First Glashan went over for Accies, and then Laidlaw scored to leave the hosts 17-16 ahead with just under 30 minutes to go.

After a lot of pressure on their scrum, Accies' James Pearse was yellow-carded with 11 minutes to go, and a few minutes later 'Muir got their third try of the day through replacement Visser to seal things 22-16.

The win leaves Boroughmuir in ninth, but crucially they are five points clear of Accies in 10th with two matches to go before Christmas.

Boroughmuir captain Rose said: "I am really pleased with the way that the guys dug out the victory in this one. It was a very tight match, but the team stuck together and we managed to score good tries through Chris and Sep.

"We now need to kick on in the next two weeks."

Elsewhere, the top three clubs all recorded wins. Leaders Ayr won 18-6 against Glasgow Hawks with Heriot's and Melrose defeating Hawick and Stirling County respectively.

At Millbrae, George Horne missed two early penalties for Hawks and then the visitors suffered two yellow cards with Tom Steven and Andy Kirkland spending time in the sin-bin.

However, Hawks held firm and it remained 0-0 at the interval. Ayr stepped things up after the break, with Ross Curle scoring a converted try just 40 seconds after the restart.

Curle then added a penalty before Horne and Jack Steele's penalties gave Hawks a lifeline to make the score 10-6.

Ayr sealed the victory, though, with a try by Andy Dunlop and a second penalty by Curle.

Heriot's were 15-7 down to Hawick at half time, but fought back after the break to win 29-15. Glenn Bryce, Jack Turley and Nathan Borel scored tries for the hosts. while they were also awarded a penalty try.

Austin Lockington, Richard Ferguson and Bruce Colvine were the try scorers for Melrose as they edged out Stirling County 20-18 at The Greenyards. Matt Lamb and Garry Mountford got County's tries as they picked up a losing bonus point.

Fourth-placed Gala suffered their fourth loss in a row when Currie saw them off 21-10 at Malleny Park.Scotland cap Kevin Bryce scored two tries and captain Ross Weston one for the Edinburgh side with James Semple kicking six points.